Ombudsman Basilius Dyakugha has said his office supports the legalisation of abortion because it will be good for women as part of their individual human rights to make decisions pertaining to their health and life.

Dyakugha said this in an interview with Nampa on Wednesday after presenting the position of the Ombudsman on the legalisation or non-legalisation of abortion in Namibia to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Social Development and Family Affairs.

He said women’s rights continue to be violated in Namibia even after the country agreed to protect their rights during the Policy for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women meeting held in Geneva Switzerland in 2016. If abortion is legalised, it will benefit women and help them make decisions that are good for their health.

“My stance is that the legalisation of abortion is actually good for women and the individual rights of a citizen, so I would support the legalisation of abortion so that we don’t have issues with other people’s rights, in particular to their health and their life,” Dyakugha stated.

He added that the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and other international bodies on human rights have urged Namibia to remove the law that prohibits abortion.

Deputy Inspector General for Administration in the Namibian Police Force, Anna-Marie Nainda, who spoke at the same occasion, said the police face challenges in arresting women suspected of committing illegal abortions because sometimes communities are reluctant to talk to the police, which makes investigations difficult to complete.

“Sometimes it is even family members who assist in hiding such information, or you might find that a foetus was transported from one region to another and got dumped far from where the crime was committed, so it gets hard to link it to someone,” said Nainda.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency