Senegal
Like many countries across West Africa, young women in Senegal face particular obstacles to staying in school, delaying marriage and motherhood, and becoming leaders. Early and forced marriage and related complications including early pregnancy, fistula, female genital mutilation, and unsafe abortion are part of the crisis facing young women.
Our partners in Senegal are working to to harmonize national abortion policy with the Maputo Protocol, an agreement adopted by the African Union that guarantees comprehensive rights to women, including the right to take part in the political process, the right to social and political equality with men, and the right to control their reproductive health. Senegal passed this international human rights agreement, so our partners are focused on holding their government to that commitment. As part of their work, they’re documenting cases of women who are denied health services that should be protected by law; as well as cases of women who are imprisoned on charges related to abortion and miscarriage. These cases are part of our strategy to build an adequate case load for a class-action suit to liberalize abortion laws, while also obtaining more immediate redress for the individual women.
Read more about the work of our partners in Senegal: