UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 33) There is a legal framework (comprising the Constitution, the new Criminal Code, the Persons and Family Code and the Children’s Code) that protects against harmful cultural practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, levirate marriage and sororate marriage.
Para 117) Measures taken to combat child marriage include the implementation of the National Programme to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancies and Child Marriage in School and Out-of School Settings between 2015 and 2019.
Para 118) Efforts are made to involve traditional and religious leaders in the fight against practices that are harmful to children, in order to achieve lasting results.
Para 119) The practice of female genital mutilation is becoming less and less common. According to the 2013–2014 demographic and health survey and the 2017 multiple indicator cluster survey, the rate of female genital mutilation fell from 5 to 3.1 per cent among women aged 15 to 49 years and from 1 to 0.3 per cent among children up to 14 years old, between 2014 and 2017.
Para 122) The minimum age for marriage is 18 years (Children’s Code, art. 267). Article 268 of the Persons and Family Code prohibits parents and guardians from promising children in marriage.
Para 132) The new Criminal Code prohibits gender-based violence, including rape, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

UN Compilation:
Para 40) The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, noted that … Child marriage remained a worrying problem, disproportionately affecting girls despite the efforts of the Government and of traditional and religious leaders.
Para 41) … Child marriage remained a worrying problem, disproportionately affecting girls despite the efforts of the Government and of traditional and religious leaders.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 45) The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) noted that, despite the law banning FGM, its prevalence within ethnic groups remains high. These groups often reside in rural and remote areas of the country where enforcement of the law is lacking. Additionally, FGM is engrained in Togo’s society, and many ethnic groups choose custom over modern law.

"National Report:
Para 77) More and more girls are attending school. According to a study by UNFPA, 87 per cent of girls and 98 per cent of boys are enrolled in primary education. There are two reasons for these figures — free primary education which prompts parents to send their children to school and a change in mentality, particularly in rural areas, where sending a girl to school is no longer taboo.
Para 78) To consolidate these achievements further steps have been taken:
Allocation of 1,016 scholarships and school supplies to girls from communities with low enrolment rates, with the support of UNESCO (2014);
Awareness-raising among traditional and customary leaders of traditional practices harmful to girls leading to the Notsé declaration of 14 June 2013, whereby they undertake to proscribe customary practices preventing girls from attending school, including keeping them in convents (118 children removed from convents to be enrolled in school (2014 and 2016));
Setting up of school canteens in 308 pilot schools for 85,000 students (2008-2015);
Introduction of a system where classes are organized in subcycles thus preventing repetitions between cycles in order to lower the dropout rate;
Distribution of 400 school kits and granting of 500 scholarships for the best secondary school pupils (2012 and 2013)."

National Report:
Para 31) The 2011 National Policy on Gender Equality and Gender Equity and the corresponding action plan, which was updated in July 2019 to include an implementation strategy, serve as a framework for all action taken for the advancement of women in Togo.
Para 32) Gender equality is enshrined in articles 2 and 11 of the Constitution. In collaboration with several partners, the Government is undertaking numerous initiatives to promote gender equality: • Implementation of a project involving the establishment of trained peer educator clubs in the fields of political leadership, peace and development. A total of 591 women have been trained since 2016. • Development and implementation of two national programmes on women’s leadership, the first relating to the political sphere and the second to the professional sphere, with a view to increasing access to leadership roles for women working in the public and private sectors, in order to improve the performance of institutions. • Promotion of women in State institutions, government agencies and so on.
Para 93) Act No. 2021-012 of 18 June 2021 on the Labour Code strengthens equality of treatment of workers and protects women and persons with disabilities against discrimination in employment.
Para 127) Togo has undertaken the following initiatives to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women: • Adoption of the 2016–2030 Agricultural Policy and the corresponding strategic plan for the period up to 2030, which comprises four strategic areas of focus. The second of these areas covers the issue of women’s access to productive resources and income, placing emphasis on the need to build their productive capacity and on the management and control of their income. • Implementation of the Project for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Togo. • Establishment of private sector support structures to help women entrepreneurs and other working women take full advantage of entrepreneurship and job creation opportunities in the formal sector. • Implementation in Togo of the Economic Community of West African States project called “50 Million African Women Speak”, which is intended to facilitate the empowerment of women through the creation of a virtual platform for networking, sharing and access to financial and other information for the purposes of entrepreneurship and enterprise development. • Awarding of 20 per cent of government contracts to young entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs in 2018, in order to promote women’s entrepreneurship. This proportion rose to 25 per cent in 2019. • Development of urban roads and rural tracks to open up the regions and facilitate the transport and sale of agricultural products, mostly by women. • Provision of mechanical and electrical equipment to women’s associations for their economic activities. • Launch of a project to support the financial inclusion of vulnerable women (women living with HIV, widows, porters, women who have been treated for obstetric fistula and women with disabilities) in July 2017.
Para 128) The number of women supported through this project totalled 3,500 in 2019, 5,655 in 2020 and 6,609 as of June 2021.
Para 129) Various measures have been taken to improve the living conditions of women with disabilities in particular. For example, the standard amount of capital available to them through the National Fund for Inclusive Finance has been increased and the repayment period extended.
Para 130) Several measures have been taken to promote the participation of women in national political life: • Launch of the 2019–2023 Equality for Girls national campaign, which is intended to bring about a social shift towards equality for women and girls. • Measures to raise awareness among the various political parties of the issues of gender equality and the participation of women in decision-making. • Provision of training in leadership and communication techniques to potential women candidates. • Plans to establish trained peer educator clubs in the fields of political leadership, peace and development in all cantons. A total of 591 women have been trained since 2016. • Establishment of a political academy for women leaders with a view to increasing the participation of women in public life. During its 2018 session, the academy provided training to 132 women in areas such as leadership, personal development, political career planning and political communication. • Implementation of the “Women Running for Municipal Councillor” project, which helped to build the campaigning skills of 219 women candidates in the 2019 municipal elections.

UN Compilation:
Para 40) The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, noted that the participation of women and young people in decision-making remained limited. Furthermore, women and girls continued to experience inequality and discrimination in economic, legal, social and political aspects of their lives.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 35) JS9 noted the poor working and living conditions of workers in certain industries, particularly those in the free trade zone. For example, female workers do not receive maternity leave, and pregnant women risk losing their jobs.

National Report:
Para 69) In order to improve the health of the population, Togo has adopted a national health development plan for 2017–2022, in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals, including the target of achieving universal health coverage. This plan comprises five strategic lines of action for combating disease and accelerating the reduction of maternal, neonatal, infant and child mortality.
Para 70) The measures taken to improve maternal and child health include the development of integrated community-based maternal and newborn care, the prevention of child malnutrition, the promotion of emergency obstetric and neonatal care, the stepping up of family planning activities, the prevention and free treatment of severe malaria in pregnant women and children, the free provision of antiretroviral drugs, vaccines and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to women and children, and the provision of services via mobile clinics in underserved areas since 2018.
Para 71) Maternal and infant mortality in Togo dropped from 39 per cent of live births in 2010 to 27 per cent in 2014 (according to the 2014 demographic and health survey), thanks to the development and implementation of several plans and programmes, including: • A project to strengthen the health system, focusing on reproductive health and sexual rights, with support from the German Agency for International Cooperation • A project to improve maternal and neonatal health, funded through the Muskoka Initiative: Maternal, Newborn and Under-Five Child Health
Para 72) As a result of these efforts, the rate of maternal and neonatal deaths from direct obstetric causes in health-care facilities fell from 1.74 per cent in 2019 to 1.3 per cent in 2020, while the target set in the National Health Development Plan was 1.72 per cent (2020 performance report of the Ministry of Health, Hygiene and Universal Access to Health Care).
Para 73) In addition, the Government has just launched the following programmes and projects: • A programme for the provision of support to pregnant women and newborns, in 2021 • A project on ensuring access to quality essential health-care services in order to achieve universal health coverage, for the period 2021–2026.
Para 78) The decades-long fight against malaria continued throughout national territory in 2020 with the implementation of the following measures: • Prevention through the use of long-lasting insecticidal nets for vector control, intermittent presumptive treatment for pregnant women and seasonal malaria chemoprevention for children under 5 years old