NAIROBI, Kenya – The Interconnected Justice Society and human rights activists have raised concerns over the rising cases of anti-human rights movements worldwide that seek to roll back the marginalised, minorities, and women’s reproductive rights.
These rights have been won over the last 20 years. Ahead of the International Day of Families, this year’s theme is “Family-Oriented Policies for Sustainable Development.”
The International Day of Families is observed annually on May 15th.
The activists are also concerned about how Kenyan families are struggling to make ends meet and the inadequate reproductive health services, making it difficult for women to access basic maternal health care.
The group opines that society has been distracted over the years from thinking about family issues being tied to sexual orientation or gender identity.
It is also a distraction from where there is a need to focus as a nation, which is to ensure that families are places of healing, divine inspiration, safety, and dignity and that no family should reject anybody.
Why Activists are concerned about teenage pregnancies
Addressing the members of the press, Houghton Irungu, Executive Director, Amnesty International Kenya, noted:
“We are very concerned about the rising numbers, which continue to rise from unwanted pregnancies of young people and minors. We’re very concerned that we do not have, I guess, the resources to support young people, particularly in an era where they are increasingly feeling the peer pressure and the need to conform to societal expectations,” said Irungu.
Irungu further indicated that there was a need to recognise that in Kenya today, there are all kinds of families: polygamous families, families that are raised by grandparents, single-headed households, and even orphan families.
“And there are increasing numbers of children parenting children. And these are all major concerns for Amnesty International.”
Bishop Joseph Tolton, president of Interconnected Justice, warned that white supremacy, backed by some conservative groups, eats people of African descent globally.
They undermine Africa’s democracies and resources while sowing division. He urged Africans to unite under Ubuntu and African liberation for peace and prosperity.
The Interconnected Justice Affirming Elders Council has termed it “ A Call For Pan-African Liberation”.
A Dangerous Agenda for Africa’s Future Across the African continent. Noting that at the centre of this agenda is a proposed “African Charter on Family Values” that is being advanced for adoption at the African Union level.
What Africans should do to cure an ailing society
They argue that the proposed charter is not about protecting African families. It is a political manoeuvre/strategy designed to undo the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, silence pro-democracy voices and movements, and erase the rights of historically marginalised groups.
“By pushing for a continental-level decision at the African Union, these actors attempt to bypass the voices of 54 parliaments and peoples. This is not democracy; it is a shortcut to injustice – one that risks centralising repression, silencing dissent, undermining human dignity, and rolling back decades of progress made by African people for African people.”
Bishop Elijah Sakha has urged Pan-Africans to stand together in unity and solidarity in making sure that anything concerning African families must be planned, organised, and implemented by Africans because it is Africans who understand better what is ailing the society, so standing together is easier to do what is needed. While implementing the policies, Pan-Africans have been urged to incorporate equality, diversity, and inclusivity.
According to Florence Nyaoke, Interconnected Justice Kenya Country Coordinator, they are working to reunify Africans in Africa and people of African descent globally. Guided by the vision of the African Union in the AU Agenda 2063 of becoming an integrated, prosperous, peaceful Africa driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena, they stand as a voice that is defending.
African democracy is protecting hard-won freedoms enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It is reclaiming African sovereignty from foreign-backed ideologies that deny our people’s rights to participate, choose, and live in dignity.
Africans have been urged to unite in building a future built on democracy where power belongs to the people and not fear of foreign interests, freedom of expression and belief, including the rights to challenge power, to speak truth to power, inclusion, and safety for all, especially for those most at risk, not forgetting Pan-African solidarity across borders, across identities, and generations as they solve rising poverty, broken health systems, illiteracy, gender-based violence, among other challenges affecting the continent.
