A regional court in West Africa convicted the state of Niger for failing in giving protection to a 12 year-old girl from being sold into the slavery. The anti-slavery campaigners hope that with this case there will be set an example for many others.
The Court ruled that Niger had failed in its commitments to protect Manie Hadijatou, the girl being involved. She claims to have been sold into slavery in 1996 for 500 dollars and she was also frequently beaten and sexually abused.
At one point Mani was in jail for bigamy also by the Niger's court system. This all happened because her master forced her to mary another man and he also considered her as his own wife. She was finally set free in 2005.
Mani, who is now 24 years-old, is very pleased with the decision of the court.
The court has sentenced the state to pay 10 million CFA francs in damages and interests. A lawyer from Niger's government also told that they will respect the decision.
There was also a second issue that the campaigners wanted to bring in the case. Which is the conviction of the government for legitimizing slavery through customary laws. But the court dismissed that complaint.
Nigeria is really far for us and except for what the news is bringing us, I don't know exactly what is happening over there. It is known that a lot of illegal acts are going on in there. And all we hear are negative things but now this trial is perhaps a point of change. I also hope this will be an example for a lot of women who are too scared to complaining to stand up for their rights. Therefor there will perhaps steady be a better world for women in countries where emancipation of the woman is far far away.
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE49Q2RM20081027
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre49q2rm-us-niger-slavery/
Abonneren op:
Reacties posten (Atom)
2 opmerkingen:
(by Bieke Demeester)
Greet, you’re absolutely right that the media doesn’t report a lot of the situation in Africa. They mostly report of poverty and civil wars. But last year, I had the chance to learn more about some different African cultures and customs. I worked as a social worker with refugees from Africa. Their support was so different from Belgian people who came to the OCMW. All these women were facing mental problems, caused by their situation in their mother country, such as violence and threats, and caused by their present situation of uncertainty of their residence permit. One woman told me the terrifying story of being forced into a marriage and threatened by her husband as a slave. Emancipation of women often doesn’t exist. I want this to be changed, but this step is far away because the customs are so ingrained. Customs like a man being in charge of his wife and the circumcision of women. I realise that these customs become of smaller interest in some countries or big cities and I want this to spread over the whole world. Convictions like these of Niger are very important to achieve this.
Een reactie posten