Contestation of the law that sends pregnant adolescents to night education in Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Contestation of the law that sends pregnant adolescents to night education in Mozambique

10:35 CAT | 29 May 2017

Reuters (File photo)

Mozambique’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights Network has launched a new call for the repeal of a law requiring pregnant adolescents to transfer to night education. The measure has been in force since 2003 and has been challenged by non-governmental organisations several times.

The network brought the matter up again on Friday during commemorations for International Day of Action for Women’s Health, which was officially on Sunday but was celebrated in Maputo on Saturday.

In a statement, the group of organizations called for “concrete steps to remove all administrative barriers to education for pregnant girls”. Revoking the Ministry of Education and Development order No. 39/2003 “is an urgent and critical need”, it stressed.

The law seeks to solve the problem of sexual violence in schools by suspending offenders and sending them to night school, along with pregnant students. However, according to the network, the measure has led to an increase in school drop-outs.

The group also took advantage of the date to warn of “the urgent need to move forward with the regulation and mechanisms for the application of the abortion law”, noting that 11 percent of maternal deaths in Mozambique are caused by unsafe interventions.

The Sexual and Reproductive Rights Network held a Health Fair in Maputo’s Praça da Paz on Friday, an initiative that encompassed legal counselling, information on the abortion decriminalisation law, HIV counselling and screening, and theatrical and other artistic events.

Source: Lusa