Dakar, January 24 (APS) – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), together with its member organizations in Senegal, called on Friday, in Dakar, the Senegalese State to comply with its international commitments in matters of abortion in cases of rape or incest, in particular Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol authorizing this practice in these two cases.
Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol commits States Parties to take all appropriate measures to protect “the reproductive rights of women, particularly by authorizing medical abortion, in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and when the pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother and the fetus.”
“We ask the State of Senegal to comply with its international legal commitments [dans ce domaine]. It’s not complicated,” asserted Joseph Faye, secretary general of the Senegalese Human Rights League (LSDH), during a press conference aimed at presenting the conclusions and recommendations of a report devoted to this subject.
Entitled “Double punishment: survivors of rape and incest forced to continue their pregnancy in Senegal”, this report was prepared by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) on the situation of violence against women , in November 2024.
“In my humble opinion, if there is something to be corrected, it is the provisions of article 305 of the Senegalese Constitution which the national judge continues to apply by setting aside the provisions of article 14 of the Maputo protocol , thus violating the provisions of article 98 of the Senegalese Constitution which were clear, by saying that regularly ratified treaties had a value superior to the law,” declared Joseph Faye.
“When we talk about what is right, we are referring in our context to the law. And in this case, it is article 98 of the Senegalese Constitution, article 14 of the Maputo protocol and the provisions of article 305 which condemn abortion in all its forms,” defended Mr. Faye.
Joseph Faye considers that “the national judge, by continuing to apply the provisions of article 305, violates the Constitution announced by article 92”.
-“We hope that the State of Senegal, which has signed and ratified the Maputo protocol since 2004, can integrate it into the national legal order. If only for the young girls who, when leaving their parents in the morning to go to school, are sexually assaulted along the way and are forced to suspend their schooling and become pregnant at this time of their lives », pleaded Joseph Faye.
Oulimata Sène, jurist consultant project manager at the Association of Senegalese Jurists (AJS), believes that in 2025, “it is urgent that the government expresses itself on the subject, guarantees respect for the rule of law and carries out concrete actions for the promotion and better protection of women’s rights.”
Senegal owes this “to the little girls and women of the country,” added Ms. Sène during this meeting with journalists.
She adds that the organizations concerned ask the State to take the necessary legislative and judicial measures for better protection of women and girls who are victims of physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence.
The State is also expected to provide an effective legal and judicial assistance system for victims of rape and incest, in particular through the establishment of a legal assistance service specifically dedicated to their support.
FIDH and its member organizations – LSDH, NDH, RADDHO –, in partnership with the AJS, salute “the activists of remarkable courage who continue their fight for the legalization of medical abortion in Senegal in cases of incest or of rape, and fight for the universality of the rights of women and girls despite the numerous threats and attacks against them.
