Prof Durojaye gives a Lecture on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights

On 19 June 2017, Prof Ebenezer Durojaye, Head of the Socio-economic Rights Project at the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, delivered a guest lecture at the College of Law, Osun State University, Nigeria. The lecture was titled: Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights as Human Rights in Africa.

It focused on the myriad sexual and reproductive health challenges facing Africa and how human rights principles and standards can help in addressing them. The presentation traced the evolution of sexual and reproductive health as human rights and highlighted various international and regional human rights instruments applicable in this regard.

Some of the sexual and reproductive health challenges facing Africa include high incidence of maternal and infant mortality, unsafe abortion, child marriage, sexual violence, HIV prevalence, poor access to contraception, lack of youth-friendly health centres and negative attitudes of health care providers. He noted that the existing human rights instruments in Africa, particularly the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women (the Maputo Protocol) and recent clarifications provided by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the instrument, provide good opportunities to address some of these challenges and hold African governments accountable to their obligations.

He concluded by noting that Africa is in dire need of scholars in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights and hoped that some of the students attending the lecture would show interest in this emerging field in future. The lecture was attended by about 100 people including students and faculty members of the College. The opening remark was delivered by the Provost/Dean of the College, Prof Olaide Gbadamosi, while the closing remark was done by Mr Jaiyebo a Senior Lecturer at the College of Law.