COVID-19, Women's Rights, and the Rule of Law in Africa: Muddying the Waters

• Author: Funmi Abioye
• DOI: 10.25159/2522-6800/10281
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Date: 01 June 2022
• Pages: 1-21

Article

Southern African Public Law

https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-6800/10281

https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL

ISSN 2522-6800 (Online)

#10281 | 21 pages

© Unisa Press 2022

COVID-19, Women’s Rights, and the Rule of Law

in Africa: Muddying the Waters

Funmi Abioye

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6274-6308

University of South Africa

fforfunmi@gmail.com

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global space. African countries and

societies have been greatly impacted, economies have been brought to the brink,

with already established legal mechanisms designed to ensure the functioning

of societies, being tested to the limit. In response, the concepts of ‘national

lockdown,’ ‘social distancing,’ ‘travel restrictions’ have become too familiar as

governments move to try and protect their populations. These measures have

had deleterious effects on law, the rule of law and the protection of rights

guaranteed by constitutions and regional instruments. In virtually every aspect

of life, human rights have suffered the direct and indirect consequences of

governments’ responses to the pandemic. This is particularly more so in African

states, and among the vulnerable members of the African population. It is said

that women in Africa have borne the brunt of the impact of the pandemic during

the measures implemented by States in attempts to curb and control the

pandemic.

This article examines the impact of these responses on the rights of African

women by drawing examples from South Africa. Constitutionalism and the rule

of law are affected as rights are limited and at times derogated in an attempt to

contain and control the pandemic. These derogations have had the unintended

consequence of limiting the guaranteed rights of African women under the

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of

Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) and other international, regional and

national legislative provisions. The necessary factors that States need to

consider before imposing pandemic curtailment measures in future, are

discussed and recommended

Keywords: women’s rights; COVID-19; pandemic; rule of law; constitutionalism;

Maputo Protocol; South Africa, Africa.

Abioye

2

All countries must strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing

economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights

Introduction

The novel Coronavirus, commonly referred to as COVID-19 has upturned the world.

1

From very innocuous beginnings in December 2019, the virus (SARS-CoV-2) soon

spread to nations across the globe. By 30 January 2020, the World Health Organisation

(WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

(PHEIC).

2

Within six weeks of that declaration, by 11 March 2020, a pandemic was

declared by the WHO.

3

Although the official mortality rate for COVID-19 is relatively

low, it comes with a high rate of transmission and infection which means that even with

a low mortality rate, the actual number of those succumbing to the virus is quite high,

4

and carries the risk of overwhelming health systems.

Governments were quick to heed the warnings of the WHO and health authorities, by

imposing emergency measures to curb the spread of the virus. By early 2020, various

measures were implemented globally in a bid to stem the transmission of the disease, to

minimise the loss of lives and to avoid overwhelming health systems. African

governments were not left out, and in July 2021, the International Centre for Not-For-

Profit Law recorded that African states had passed seventeen declarations of States of

emergency, nine declarations of national states of disaster and a good number of

declarations of public health emergencies.

5

These measures were targeted at reducing

the rate of transmission of the virus, and cases of severe illness. They were also designed

to give national healthcare infrastructures and health workers the space to deal with the

treatment and management of those infected by the disease (in order to avoid a total

 World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General’s Opening Remarks at the media briefing on

11 March 2020, declaring COVID-19 a pandemic <https://www.who.int/director-

general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-

19---11-march-2020> accessed 24 September 2021.

1

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses believed to cause illness ranging from the common

cold to more severe diseases as seen with COVID-19.

2

WHO Director-General’s Statement on IHR Emergency Committee on Novel Coronavirus (2019-

nCoV) (30 January 2020). See WHO ‘Statement on th e Second Meeting of the International Health

Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-

nCoV)’ <https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-

international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-

coronavirus-(2019-ncov)> accessed 16 September 2021.

3

ibid.

4

The WHO estimated the mortality at 3.4 per cent. As o f 18 October 2021, the WHO reported that

almost fiv e million people have died as a result of the virus, with well over 240 million people

infected. See <https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019> accessed 28

September 2021.

5

See ‘African Government Responses to Covid -19’ <https://www.icnl.org/post/analysis/african-

government-response-to-covid-19> accessed 15 March 2022.