Back Issues

Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: campaign edition

CONTENTS LIST

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/22719

SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA

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**SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA: SIGN AN ONLINE PETITION**
http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1

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"I urge all African States to ratify the Protocol immediately; because African women's rights cannot be postponed as any human rights cannot be postponed."
Graça Machel
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"I am hopeful that all African Union member states will ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa in the same spirit and with the same commitment they have adopted and are using to implement the gender component of the Statute of the AU, demonstrated by the encouraging example of appointing women to fill 50% of the seats on the African Commission."
Navanethem Pillay, South African judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC)
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Visit:

http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1

to sign the petition urging African states to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Once you have signed online remember to confirm your signature through an email that will be sent to you.

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CONTENTS

1. Unfinished Business - African Leaders Must Act Now to ratify The Protocol on the Rights of Women

The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a piece of paper without any force, points out FAIZA JAMA MOHAMED. Even though the campaign by activists for the text of The Protocol on the Rights of African Women represented a successful model of cooperation among national, regional and international women's NGOs the rights it represent remain hypothetical until it is ratified.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22726

2. A plea for ratification

By ratifying The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa the preservation of African values is placed with women, "the custodians of legends and traditions known in our time for their unending fight for peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity". ZEINAB KAMIL ALI believes that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the Protocol.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22732

3. The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A challenge for Africa and women

The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa will be an important step towards entrenching the human rights of women. But KAFUI ADJAMAGBO-JOHNSON says that it is important to note that it is a long way to the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. “Every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation.”

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22721

4. African states: Equal to the task?

HANNAH FORSTER looks at the background and scope of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, highlighting some of the landmark provisions and what states will commit themselves once they ratify the Protocol. She concludes by appealing to states to stand up and perform their duty.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22727

5. Time to take count of Africa's daughters

Good is no good where better can be attained, states GICHINGA NDIRANGU. Ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is an important step, but domesticating its provisions into national law is the next crucial step.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22723

6. Making governments accountable

Political expediency and global image are the reasons why governments ratify international human rights instruments, says DR SYLVIA TAMALE. But by ratifying governments are pledging to adhere to all the provisions of any given instrument. In this context, it is the duty of citizens to make governments accountable.

Full article:http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22724

7. Zimbabwe's Women Acting Against AIDS

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination, writes ISABELLA MATAMBANADZO. “The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.”

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22725

8. “It is not a gift to offer women, it is their right”

Women that are free from violence, educated and who fully participate in decision making at all levels: these are some of the results expected by the implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. And, asks MORISSANDA KOUYATE, which country would not want that for its citizens?

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22731

9. Meeting the gender parity target of 2005
As African leaders and heads of state plan to join hands in the forthcoming AU summit in Addis next month, three years after appending their signatures to the Dakar Framework for action (EFA Protocol, 2000), civil society’s perception on progress made on EFA by African countries has been mixed, argues ANDIWO OBONDOH

10. The reality…and the paperwork

War and violence, destitution, disease, poverty and discrimination - it is often African women who carry the burden of Africa's economic, social and political crisis. In July 2003 a piece of paper with a preamble and 29 articles was passed by the African Union that was hailed as major progress in the struggle for the rights of women on the continent. But what exactly is the reality facing African women? And how does the paperwork begin to address the realities? PAMBAZUKA NEWS looks at ten areas effecting women's rights and what the protocol says about them.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22722

** Statistics on gender in Africa, links to interesting articles, useful web sites and resources on women's rights.

This special issue has been produced jointly by Fahamu, Equality Now, FEMNET CREDO and Oxfam GB.

1. Unfinished Business - African Leaders Must Act Now to ratify The Protocol on the Rights of Women

Faiza Jama Mohamed

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22726

It took almost a decade (eight years to be precise) for African leaders to finally agree on a text and adopt the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at the Second Ordinary Summit of the African Union held in Maputo in July 2003. The Protocol is a legal framework for African women to use in the exercise of their rights. It is comprehensive in that it addresses various concerns of women of different ages and various conditions based on the realities at the ground. For that reason it is welcomed and celebrated by all African women.

Before it finally came onto the agenda of the heads of states meeting last year, several obstacles that inhibited completion of this important document had to be overcome. The first experts meeting convened by the OAU (now the African Union) in November 2001 brought together officials who in the majority regrettably had little legal or gender expertise. As a result, the draft document that came out of that meeting had serious gaps and was of a lower standard compared to other comparable international law instruments such as the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which most African states, had already ratified.

The experts meeting also failed to reach agreement on some aspects of the draft. A future date was set to finalize the outstanding provisions, but this meeting and others called by the OAU/African Union to achieve this purpose had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum. Activists around Africa saw two problems: the document was weak and did not adequately address the specific issues relating to African women, and it was not moving forward due to the repeated lack of a quorum, which expressed the low priority accorded to women, although they comprise over 50% of Africa's population, by the very governments they have voted into office.

Activists then decided it was time to refocus their efforts. Various consultations were held around Africa among civil society organizations. Equality Now, an international human rights organization, joined the process in July 2002 at a meeting convened by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Nairobi. Equality Now also consulted with the African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), and other regional and national groups that were most actively engaged in working toward the passage of a strong Protocol for the protection and promotion of women's rights.

In January 2003, Equality Now convened a strategy meeting of activists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, proceeding with the meeting although the governmental meeting it was scheduled to coincide with was again cancelled for lack of a quorum. The meeting discussed, reviewed and strengthened the text of the draft Protocol through dialogue among women's rights organizations from across Africa and produced a collective mark-up, which was widely distributed across the continent for promotion with national governments. The coalition of activists also lobbied African governments to send delegates with legal and human rights expertise from their capitals to the scheduled meeting of the African Union.

Equality Now was nominated to take on a coordinating role and to work closely with the Secretariat of the African Union to encourage it to facilitate a successful meeting. In response to the campaign several countries held national consultation meetings, with the participation of civil society organizations, to review the mark-up. Several countries also brought members from civil society as part of their delegation to the experts meeting.

All in all, countries were much better prepared when they came for the experts meeting in March 2003 and many were also open to improving the existing document. Immediately prior to the Meeting of Experts and the African Union Ministerial Meeting that took place in Addis Ababa, Equality Now's Africa Office convened another meeting of women's rights activists and organizations, in order to coordinate a strategic plan for advocacy and to ensure that the substantive provisions of the draft Protocol were strengthened during the course of the experts' and ministerial meetings. These advocacy efforts had a dramatic impact on the draft Protocol, which was significantly improved during the course of the meeting. Subsequently, On July 11, 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The campaign by activists for The Protocol on the Rights of African Women represents a successful model of cooperation among national, regional and international women's NGOs that led to concrete results, namely the strengthening of the final text of The Protocol with regard to a number of significant provisions enumerating fundamental women's rights and its adoption by the African Union. The African Union's Commissioner Djinnit Said also saw the campaign around the Protocol as an excellent model for collaboration between the African Union and civil society organizations and said as much in a meeting the African Union hosted earlier in the year to consult with African civil society organizations.

One year after its adoption, however, only 30 countries have signed the Protocol and only one (the Comoros) has ratified it. It needs 15 ratifications to enter into force. Until then these rights remain hypothetical! All the past efforts by civil society will have been wasted if the Protocol is not ratified. And the majority of women in Africa will continue to be deprived of protection under international law of many of their basic rights. For this reason, activists have once again pooled their resources, energy and focus to urge governments to honour their commitments to uphold women's rights by ratifying the Protocol as soon as possible, ideally by the heads of state summit in July 2004.

Women around Africa are daily monitoring the website of the African Union taking note of which of their leaders are true to their commitments. Women's organizations and human rights organizations in Africa have launched national campaigns to lobby their respective governments engaging in dialogue with the relevant ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Gender and in some cases even the heads of states offices to impress upon them the importance of ratifying the Protocol without delay.

With a concerted effort, together we can achieve ratification. That is why activists in Guinea-Conakry are working hard to sensitize parliamentarians and decision-makers through workshops and meetings in an effort to win support for the ratification of the Protocol, groups in Kenya are engaging dialogue with several ministries (Ministry of Gender, Sports and Culture; Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to sensitize them and discuss the process of ratification and the need to speed up the ratification process. In Mali women are planning to hold information and sensitization forums with Parliamentarians on the Protocol as well as mobilizing women's organizations to make a declaration urging the government to ratify the Protocol. In South Africa plans are underway to inform the Office of the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs and the State Law advisors as well as the Parliamentary Commissions on Justice, quality of life and the Status of Women on the Protocol and discuss the obstacles to the early ratification of the Protocol. And these are just some of the activities planned around the continent to press for ratification. It is imperative that governments heed our urgent call for women to be guaranteed equal status to men and equal protection of their rights.

The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a piece of paper without any force. By ratifying it, governments will be taking the first step towards recognizing the equal worth of women. Implementation will then be critical. The Protocol makes many equality advances for women under international law, including affording special protection for vulnerable groups such as widows, the disabled and those from marginalised groups. It is only by protecting and promoting the rights of all its peoples that Africa will be able to access its full resources and lead the continent to prosperity. The Beijing +10 review process offers African governments an opportunity to demonstrate their determination to lead their peoples' to the path to development. One concrete benchmark on this path to development is the seriousness that they give to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. If they ratify it now they will have a concrete achievement to bring to the table later this year when the continent comes together for the Beijing +10 conference, as a gesture of recognition for the human rights of women as a priority agenda of the continent.

We call on African leaders to honor their commitments to women and ACT NOW to ratify the Protocol!

* Faiza Jama Mohamed works for Equality Now.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
1. The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a piece of paper without any force, points out FAIZA JAMA MOHAMED. Even though the campaign by activists for the text of The Protocol on the Rights of African Women represented a successful model of cooperation among national, regional and international women's NGOs the rights it represent remain hypothetical until it is ratified.

Unfinished Business - African Leaders Must Act Now to ratify The Protocol on Rights of Women
Faiza Jama Mohamed

It took almost a decade (eight years to be precise) for African leaders to finally agree on a text and adopt the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at the Second Ordinary Summit of the African Union held in Maputo in July 2003. The Protocol is a legal framework for African women to use in the exercise of their rights. It is comprehensive in that it addresses various concerns of women of different ages and various conditions based on the realities at the ground. For that reason it is welcomed and celebrated by all African women.

Before it finally came onto the agenda of the heads of states meeting last year, several obstacles that inhibited completion of this important document had to be overcome. The first experts meeting convened by the OAU (now the African Union) in November 2001 brought together officials who in the majority regrettably had little legal or gender expertise. As a result, the draft document that came out of that meeting had serious gaps and was of a lower standard compared to other comparable international law instruments such as the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which most African states, had already ratified.

The experts meeting also failed to reach agreement on some aspects of the draft. A future date was set to finalize the outstanding provisions, but this meeting and others called by the OAU/African Union to achieve this purpose had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum. Activists around Africa saw two problems: the document was weak and did not adequately address the specific issues relating to African women, and it was not moving forward due to the repeated lack of a quorum, which expressed the low priority accorded to women, although they comprise over 50% of Africa's population, by the very governments they have voted into office.

Activists then decided it was time to refocus their efforts. Various consultations were held around Africa among civil society organizations. Equality Now, an international human rights organization, joined the process in July 2002 at a meeting convened by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Nairobi. Equality Now also consulted with the African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), and other regional and national groups that were most actively engaged in working toward the passage of a strong Protocol for the protection and promotion of women's rights.

In January 2003, Equality Now convened a strategy meeting of activists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, proceeding with the meeting although the governmental meeting it was scheduled to coincide with was again cancelled for lack of a quorum. The meeting discussed, reviewed and strengthened the text of the draft Protocol through dialogue among women's rights organizations from across Africa and produced a collective mark-up, which was widely distributed across the continent for promotion with national governments. The coalition of activists also lobbied African governments to send delegates with legal and human rights expertise from their capitals to the scheduled meeting of the African Union.

Equality Now was nominated to take on a coordinating role and to work closely with the Secretariat of the African Union to encourage it to facilitate a successful meeting. In response to the campaign several countries held national consultation meetings, with the participation of civil society organizations, to review the mark-up. Several countries also brought members from civil society as part of their delegation to the experts meeting.

All in all, countries were much better prepared when they came for the experts meeting in March 2003 and many were also open to improving the existing document. Immediately prior to the Meeting of Experts and the African Union Ministerial Meeting that took place in Addis Ababa, Equality Now's Africa Office convened another meeting of women's rights activists and organizations, in order to coordinate a strategic plan for advocacy and to ensure that the substantive provisions of the draft Protocol were strengthened during the course of the experts' and ministerial meetings. These advocacy efforts had a dramatic impact on the draft Protocol, which was significantly improved during the course of the meeting. Subsequently, On July 11, 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The campaign by activists for The Protocol on the Rights of African Women represents a successful model of cooperation among national, regional and international women's NGOs that led to concrete results, namely the strengthening of the final text of The Protocol with regard to a number of significant provisions enumerating fundamental women's rights and its adoption by the African Union. The African Union's Commissioner Djinnit Said also saw the campaign around the Protocol as an excellent model for collaboration between the African Union and civil society organizations and said as much in a meeting the African Union hosted earlier in the year to consult with African civil society organizations.

One year after its adoption, however, only 30 countries have signed the Protocol and only one (the Comoros) has ratified it. It needs 15 ratifications to enter into force. Until then these rights remain hypothetical! All the past efforts by civil society will have been wasted if the Protocol is not ratified. And the majority of women in Africa will continue to be deprived of protection under international law of many of their basic rights. For this reason, activists have once again pooled their resources, energy and focus to urge governments to honour their commitments to uphold women's rights by ratifying the Protocol as soon as possible, ideally by the heads of state summit in July 2004.

Women around Africa are daily monitoring the website of the African Union taking note of which of their leaders are true to their commitments. Women's organizations and human rights organizations in Africa have launched national campaigns to lobby their respective governments engaging in dialogue with the relevant ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Gender and in some cases even the heads of states offices to impress upon them the importance of ratifying the Protocol without delay.

With a concerted effort, together we can achieve ratification. That is why activists in Guinea-Conakry are working hard to sensitize parliamentarians and decision-makers through workshops and meetings in an effort to win support for the ratification of the Protocol, groups in Kenya are engaging dialogue with several ministries (Ministry of Gender, Sports and Culture; Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to sensitize them and discuss the process of ratification and the need to speed up the ratification process. In Mali women are planning to hold information and sensitization forums with Parliamentarians on the Protocol as well as mobilizing women's organizations to make a declaration urging the government to ratify the Protocol. In South Africa plans are underway to inform the Office of the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs and the State Law advisors as well as the Parliamentary Commissions on Justice, quality of life and the Status of Women on the Protocol and discuss the obstacles to the early ratification of the Protocol. And these are just some of the activities planned around the continent to press for ratification. It is imperative that governments heed our urgent call for women to be guaranteed equal status to men and equal protection of their rights.

The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a piece of paper without any force. By ratifying it, governments will be taking the first step towards recognizing the equal worth of women. Implementation will then be critical. The Protocol makes many equality advances for women under international law, including affording special protection for vulnerable groups such as widows, the disabled and those from marginalised groups. It is only by protecting and promoting the rights of all its peoples that Africa will be able to access its full resources and lead the continent to prosperity. The Beijing +10 review process offers African governments an opportunity to demonstrate their determination to lead their peoples' to the path to development. One concrete benchmark on this path to development is the seriousness that they give to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. If they ratify it now they will have a concrete achievement to bring to the table later this year when the continent comes together for the Beijing +10 conference, as a gesture of recognition for the human rights of women as a priority agenda of the continent.

We call on African leaders to honor their commitments to women and ACT NOW to ratify the Protocol!

* Faiza Jama Mohamed works for Equality Now.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

2. A plea for ratification

Zeinab Kamil Ali

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22732

Some big events in life pass by unnoticed at the time of happening by human intelligence. We must generally wait for the precious analyses of historians several decades later so as to qualify the events as historic. It is often said quite mechanically that history is repeating itself, without thinking about the lessons to be drawn from such pronouncements. Must we wait for the end of the century to recognize the historical value contained in the Protocol on the Rights of Women?

From the Constitutive Act of the African Union, it seems that Africa has made a step forward in following the chorus of nations. In fact, strong regional structures and decisions that have been re-dynamised and honored by the visionary leadership of the Heads of States, Africa is now adorned with the essentials that it had lacked until then: she is now equipped with a common will, a real union to mobilize her energies and merge the synergies towards a common objective in the fight against underdevelopment and the numerous ills that this entails.

As reassuring as consequence of the regional policies may be there is no doubt that the innovation to highlight rests in the recognition of the woman as an equal partner with the man and the need for her involvement in the management of African affairs, state affairs and family or private affairs. The African woman remains from now on at the center of the credo of all political discussions. The consecration of the concept of gender parity in the Constitutive Act of the African Union in the recruitment of Commissioners and all other technical personnel brilliantly marks the end of an era where actions for the promotion of women were included under pressure for the conditionality imposed by donors and this without any conviction or concern for the improvement in the condition of the African woman.

In fact the Constitutive Act of the African union in its framework for the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, constitutes the expected detonator to reaffirm and implement the principle of equality and its corollary the principle of non discrimination. In other words, the adoption of an African instrument specific to the rights of women reveals in plain language the appropriation by the African states of the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

In all the big meetings in the history of Africa, Africans have known how to show their courage and mobilize their energies so as to make heard the cause of their people. By this Protocol that solemnly reaffirms their rights, the protection of their dignity and their non disputable role in the management of the affairs of the state and in the decision making spheres, Africans are recovering the merits that are coming back to them, that which was praised in the songs and tales of our ancestors but made to look bad in a contemporary epoch full of traditional values. What does the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa say ?

As a regional instrument, it flows from the African Charter on Human and People's Rights adopted in 1981, which it has the merit of completing in conformity to the provisions of Article 66 of the African Charter. The provisions of the Protocol protect the rights of African women such as they are recognized and guarantied to all human beings and particularly by the international instruments on human rights namely the Universal Declaration on human rights, the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocols and the African Charter on the Rights and Well Being of the Child and all other conventions and international treaties on women's rights as human rights, inalienable, interdependent and indivisible.

The 12th consideration in the Preamble constitutes the framework within which to understand the Protocol.

- The rights protected by the Protocol

The rights protected in the Protocol are diverse and are not exhaustively discussed in this paper. However the principle of equality cuts across. With its corollary the principle of non-discrimination, the principle of equality, is recognized in all African constitutions.

The francophone countries recognize equality between men and women formally and in the law. In the other countries however there are specific mechanisms for putting into effect these legal principles. The Protocol goes beyond the abstract of laws protecting women's rights. There are specific provisions to ensure that the laws are implemented with specific actions given to guide such processes. These are found in the provisions on the right to life, to integrity, security, elimination of all harmful practices, access to justice and equal protection before the law. The need for concrete application reverberates through the whole document and economic rights of the woman as well as the right to social protection are recognized.

In using complimentary forms of expression, the protocol retains the African touch in its context to give significance to the African reality. The right to food security, the encouragement of the creation of a system of social protection in favor of women working in the informal sector makes real sense to the African woman. The Protocol brings the women' s rights from the Universal setting to a point where all and sundry are able to access them. This plea for the ratification finds a basis in this. The majority of the African constitutions have provision for the necessary legislative mechanisms to protect the rights of women. The ratification of the Protocol will stir up the constitutional mechanisms into action and where absent make it possible for the establishment of such mechanisms.

Further by virtue of Article 26 the States have an obligation to include the level of implementation of the Protocol in their periodic reports to the African Commission on Human Rights. Paragraph 2 of Article 26 makes an interesting provision in as far as the budgetary question goes and this is indeed a soft spot for African states.

Thus the African states must allocate enough budgetary funds for the implementation of the protocol. Hitherto the budgetary allocations have been very weak for women's issues.

- Innovation of the Protocol

The Protocol takes into account the aged as well as the handicapped and the illiterate. This is an indication of the evolution of the African society and further offers special protection for women in situations of distress, women in prison, and pregnant and lactating mothers. The recognition of the rights of widows is a further indication of this evolution as widows suffer a lot in the hands of tradition and blatant disregard for their rights upon the death of their husbands. The rights of women to political participation and decision making is recognized as well even though these rights are recognized in the ICCPR and its predecessor, the 1952 convention.

Article 9 brings in for the first time the term parity and this Article paves the way for affirmative action in legislation in the member states. A distinction is made in the article between equality of chances and equality in result. It is noted that women must be made equal partners with men in decision making processes as well as policy formulation.

Women must be presented to the electorate in the democracies and this can only happen if the political parties make it favorable for women to vie for election. Political participation and its constituent characteristics must be looked at from the perspective of the rights of women.

Peace and development are interdependent in the same way that democracy and respect for human rights are interdependent. Human rights cannot be dissociated from women's rights. The human genus is made up of man and woman. Harmony can only be attained if the rights of both are respected.

The right to peace and the right to development are hardly ever recognized in international conventions. This is a first as there had only been mentions of the same in the General Assembly of the UN without real protection of the rights.

The main advantage of the Protocol is that it seeks to harmonize the different systems regulating the rights of the family and the woman. The contradictions of the African systems are noted in the plural judicial systems that often lead to confusion. The family in many African states is managed by traditional laws and Sharia in the Muslim states. As such substantial breaches to the principles of equality and non-discrimination are entrenched in the Constitutions, the supreme laws of these states. Article 6 shows the will to reconcile these opposing and fundamental differences in legal systems of states. Article 7 gives the courts and the judicial systems the duty to arbitrate over personal law and laws of the family. The Protocol seeks to do away with the confusion mentioned in the foregoing.

Article 6 c addresses the issues of marriage and highlights the objective harmonization of the conflicting laws. It also brings to the fore the search for a new Africa based on harmony and free of contradiction. The preservation of African values is placed with women, the custodians of legends and traditions known in our time for their unending fight for peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity. I believe that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

* Zeinab Kamil Ali is a member of the Commission on Human Rights, Djibouti

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

* For the full French version please click on the link below.

Certains grands évènements de la vie passent inaperçus par l’intelligence humaine au moment de leur accomplissement. Et il faut généralement attendre l’analyse précieuse des historiens , quelques décennies plus tard, pour enfin leur accorder le qualificatif « d’historiques ».
On dit souvent très machinalement que « l’histoire se répète » , sans se soucier des enseignements à tirer d’une telle assertion.
Faut-t-il donc attendre la fin d’un siècle pour reconnaître au protocole africain sur les droits des femmes la valeur historique qui lui revient ?

By ratifying The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa the preservation of African values is placed with women, the custodians of legends and traditions known in our time for their unending fight for peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity. ZEINAB KAMIL ALI believes that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the Protocol.

A plea for ratification
Zeinab Kamil Ali

Some big events in life pass by unnoticed at the time of happening by human intelligence. We must generally wait for the precious analyses of historians several decades later so as to qualify the events as historic. It is often said quite mechanically that history is repeating itself, without thinking about the lessons to be drawn from such pronouncements. Must we wait for the end of the century to recognize the historical value contained in the Protocol on the Rights of Women?

From the Constitutive Act of the African Union, it seems that Africa has made a step forward in following the chorus of nations. In fact, strong regional structures and decisions that have been re-dynamised and honored by the visionary leadership of the Heads of States, Africa is now adorned with the essentials that it had lacked until then: she is now equipped with a common will, a real union to mobilize her energies and merge the synergies towards a common objective in the fight against underdevelopment and the numerous ills that this entails.

As reassuring as consequence of the regional policies may be there is no doubt that the innovation to highlight rests in the recognition of the woman as an equal partner with the man and the need for her involvement in the management of African affairs, state affairs and family or private affairs. The African woman remains from now on at the center of the credo of all political discussions. The consecration of the concept of gender parity in the Constitutive Act of the African Union in the recruitment of Commissioners and all other technical personnel brilliantly marks the end of an era where actions for the promotion of women were included under pressure for the conditionality imposed by donors and this without any conviction or concern for the improvement in the condition of the African woman.

In fact the Constitutive Act of the African union in its framework for the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, constitutes the expected detonator to reaffirm and implement the principle of equality and its corollary the principle of non discrimination. In other words, the adoption of an African instrument specific to the rights of women reveals in plain language the appropriation by the African states of the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

In all the big meetings in the history of Africa, Africans have known how to show their courage and mobilize their energies so as to make heard the cause of their people. By this Protocol that solemnly reaffirms their rights, the protection of their dignity and their non disputable role in the management of the affairs of the state and in the decision making spheres, Africans are recovering the merits that are coming back to them, that which was praised in the songs and tales of our ancestors but made to look bad in a contemporary epoch full of traditional values. What does the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa say ?

As a regional instrument, it flows from the African Charter on Human and People's Rights adopted in 1981, which it has the merit of completing in conformity to the provisions of Article 66 of the African Charter. The provisions of the Protocol protect the rights of African women such as they are recognized and guarantied to all human beings and particularly by the international instruments on human rights namely the Universal Declaration on human rights, the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocols and the African Charter on the Rights and Well Being of the Child and all other conventions and international treaties on women's rights as human rights, inalienable, interdependent and indivisible.

The 12th consideration in the Preamble constitutes the framework within which to understand the Protocol.

- The rights protected by the Protocol

The rights protected in the Protocol are diverse and are not exhaustively discussed in this paper. However the principle of equality cuts across. With its corollary the principle of non-discrimination, the principle of equality, is recognized in all African constitutions.

The francophone countries recognize equality between men and women formally and in the law. In the other countries however there are specific mechanisms for putting into effect these legal principles. The Protocol goes beyond the abstract of laws protecting women's rights. There are specific provisions to ensure that the laws are implemented with specific actions given to guide such processes. These are found in the provisions on the right to life, to integrity, security, elimination of all harmful practices, access to justice and equal protection before the law. The need for concrete application reverberates through the whole document and economic rights of the woman as well as the right to social protection are recognized.

In using complimentary forms of expression, the protocol retains the African touch in its context to give significance to the African reality. The right to food security, the encouragement of the creation of a system of social protection in favor of women working in the informal sector makes real sense to the African woman. The Protocol brings the women' s rights from the Universal setting to a point where all and sundry are able to access them. This plea for the ratification finds a basis in this. The majority of the African constitutions have provision for the necessary legislative mechanisms to protect the rights of women. The ratification of the Protocol will stir up the constitutional mechanisms into action and where absent make it possible for the establishment of such mechanisms.

Further by virtue of Article 26 the States have an obligation to include the level of implementation of the Protocol in their periodic reports to the African Commission on Human Rights. Paragraph 2 of Article 26 makes an interesting provision in as far as the budgetary question goes and this is indeed a soft spot for African states.

Thus the African states must allocate enough budgetary funds for the implementation of the protocol. Hitherto the budgetary allocations have been very weak for women's issues.

- Innovation of the Protocol

The Protocol takes into account the aged as well as the handicapped and the illiterate. This is an indication of the evolution of the African society and further offers special protection for women in situations of distress, women in prison, and pregnant and lactating mothers. The recognition of the rights of widows is a further indication of this evolution as widows suffer a lot in the hands of tradition and blatant disregard for their rights upon the death of their husbands. The rights of women to political participation and decision making is recognized as well even though these rights are recognized in the ICCPR and its predecessor, the 1952 convention.

Article 9 brings in for the first time the term parity and this Article paves the way for affirmative action in legislation in the member states. A distinction is made in the article between equality of chances and equality in result. It is noted that women must be made equal partners with men in decision making processes as well as policy formulation.

Women must be presented to the electorate in the democracies and this can only happen if the political parties make it favorable for women to vie for election. Political participation and its constituent characteristics must be looked at from the perspective of the rights of women.

Peace and development are interdependent in the same way that democracy and respect for human rights are interdependent. Human rights cannot be dissociated from women's rights. The human genus is made up of man and woman. Harmony can only be attained if the rights of both are respected.

The right to peace and the right to development are hardly ever recognized in international conventions. This is a first as there had only been mentions of the same in the General Assembly of the UN without real protection of the rights.

The main advantage of the Protocol is that it seeks to harmonize the different systems regulating the rights of the family and the woman. The contradictions of the African systems are noted in the plural judicial systems that often lead to confusion. The family in many African states is managed by traditional laws and Sharia in the Muslim states. As such substantial breaches to the principles of equality and non-discrimination are entrenched in the Constitutions, the supreme laws of these states. Article 6 shows the will to reconcile these opposing and fundamental differences in legal systems of states. Article 7 gives the courts and the judicial systems the duty to arbitrate over personal law and laws of the family. The Protocol seeks to do away with the confusion mentioned in the foregoing.

Article 6 c addresses the issues of marriage and highlights the objective harmonization of the conflicting laws. It also brings to the fore the search for a new Africa based on harmony and free of contradiction. The preservation of African values is placed with women, the custodians of legends and traditions known in our time for their unending fight for peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity. I believe that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

* Zeinab Kamil Ali is a member of the Commission on Human Rights, Djibouti

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

PLAIDOYER POUR LA RATIFICATION DU PROTOCOLE A LA CHARTE AFRICAINE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME ET DE PEUPLES RELATIF AUX DROITS DES FEMMES





Certains grands évènements de la vie passent inaperçus par l’intelligence humaine au moment de leur accomplissement. Et il faut généralement attendre l’analyse précieuse des historiens , quelques décennies plus tard, pour enfin leur accorder le qualificatif « d’historiques ».
On dit souvent très machinalement que « l’histoire se répète » , sans se soucier des enseignements à tirer d’une telle assertion.
Faut-t-il donc attendre la fin d’un siècle pour reconnaître au protocole africain sur les droits des femmes la valeur historique qui lui revient ?
Depuis l’acte constitutif de l’Union Africaine, il semble que l’Afrique a emboîté un pas en avant dans le concert des nations. En effet, forte de structures régionales de concertation et de décision re-dynamisées et honorée du leadership de chefs d’Etats visionnaires, l’Afrique s’est parée de l’essentiel qui lui faisait défaut jusqu’alors : elle s’est dotée d’une volonté commune, d’une union réelle pour mobiliser les énergies et confondre les synergies vers l’objectif commun de lutte contre le sous développement et les multiples maux qu’il renferme.
Aussi rassurante soit-elle cette nouvelle donne de la politique régionale, nul doute que l’innovation à souligner réside dans la reconnaissance de la femme comme partenaire égale à l’homme et sa nécessaire implication dans la gestion et des affaires africaines, et des affaires de l’Etat, et des affaires familiales ou privées.
La femme africaine demeure dorénavant au centre du credo de tous les discours politiques.
La consécration du concept de la parité hommes /femmes dans l’acte constitutif de l’Union Africaine pour le recrutement des commissaires et de tout personnel technique démontre avec brio la fin de l’ère où les actions de promotion féminine étaient engagées sous la pression de la conditionnalité imposée par les bailleurs de fond et ce, sans aucune conviction ni souci d’amélioration de la condition de la femme africaine.
En fait, l’acte constitutif de l’Union Africaine, cadre d’adoption du protocole à la Charte Africaines des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes , constitue le détonateur attendu pour réaffirmer et mettre en application le principe d’égalité et son corollaire le principe de non discrimination. En d’autre termes, l’adoption d’un instrument africain spécifique aux droits des femmes révèle sans ambages l’appropriation par les Etats africains des principes d’égalité et de non-discrimination.
A toutes les grands rendez- vous de l’ Histoire de l’Afrique, les Africaines ont su faire montre de leur courage en mobilisant leurs énergies pour faire entendre la cause de leurs peuples. Par ce protocole réaffirmant solennellement leurs droits , la protection de leur dignité et leur rôle incontournable dans la gestion des affaires de l’Etat et dans les sphères décisionnelles, les Africaines recouvrent le mérite qui leur revient, celui loué par les chants et contes de nos ancêtres mais occulté à une époque contemporaine en mal de valeurs traditionnelles .


- Que dit le Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes ?

Ce Protocole s’inscrit dans la droite ligne des principes d’égalité et de non discrimination énoncés dès son préambule par la charte de SAN FRANCISCO de 1945, constitutive des Nations Unies .
En tant qu’instrument régional, il découle de la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples adopté en 1981 qu’il a le mérite de compléter conformément aux dispositions de l’article 66 de la Charte Africaine. Les dispositions de ce protocole protégent les droits de la femme africaine tels qu’ils sont reconnus et garantis à tous les êtres humains et notamment aux femmes par les instruments internationaux relatifs aux droits de l’homme notamment la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme , les pactes internationaux relatifs aux droits civils et politiques, ainsi qu’aux droits économiques, sociaux et culturels, la convention sur l’élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l’égard des femmes et son protocole facultatif, la charte africaine des droits et du bien être de l’Enfant et tous les autres conventions et pactes internationaux relatifs aux droits de la femme en tant que droits humains, inaliénables, interdépendants et indivisibles.
Toutefois, il est à souligner les motivations majeures de ce protocole qui résident dans la prise de conscience des Etats africains de l’existence d’un hiatus entre, d’une part, leurs engagements aux conventions internationales et régionales relatives aux droits de l’homme en général ou de façon spécifique aux droits des femmes et d’autre part, la précarité de la situation des femmes en Afrique, faisant encore et toujours l’objet de discrimination et de pratiques néfastes et acculées sous le poids de tous les maux du sous développement ( pandémie du Sida , pauvreté extrême …).
C’est cette reconnaissance solennellement affirmée dès le préambule qui fait la différence avec les engagements précédents et éclaire d’un jour nouveau cette volonté commune à la laquelle nous faisions , référence plus haut.
Ce protocole pose ainsi un jalon supplémentaire à la protection des droits des femmes et à leur pleine jouissance de tous leurs droits humains.

« Préoccupés par le fait qu’en dépit de la ratification par la majorité des Etats parties à la charte africaine des droits de l’homme des peuples et de tous les instruments internationaux relatifs aux droits de l’homme et de l’engagement solennel pris par ces Etats d’éliminer toutes les formes de discrimination et de pratiques néfastes à l’égard des femmes, la femme en Afrique continue d’être l’objet de discriminations et de pratiques néfastes »
Ce douzième considérant du préambule du protocole constitue l’ossature de traité, l’esprit du protocole qui permet de comprendre sa lettre.


- Les droits protégés par le protocole

Les droits des femmes énoncés dans le protocole sont très diversifiés et recouvrent des domaines variés. Sans pouvoir en établir une liste exhaustive, il est judicieux d’insister sur le principe d’égalité en tant que fondement des droits ainsi reconnus.
Ainsi, le principe d’égalité et son corollaire le principe de non- discrimination sont reconnus dans toutes les constitutions africaines. A la seule nuance que dans certaines constitutions notamment celles des Etats francophones) l’égalité formelle ( égalité de tous les citoyens devant la loi ) est de rigueur tandis que d’autres affirment aux cotés de l’égalité formelle l’égalité par la loi c’est à dire reconnaissent explicitement l’exigence d’adopter des actions positives en faveur des femmes.
L’intérêt de ce protocole, c’est qu’il abandonne le recours aux formules abstraites énonçant simplement des droits protégés. Les dispositions de ce protocole ont l’avantage de guider, l’Etat dans les mesures et actions à prendre pour une protection effective des droits des femmes.
Il en est ainsi des dispositions relatives au droit à la vie , à l’intégrité et à la sécurité, à l’élimination des pratiques néfastes, à l’accès à la justice et l’égale protection devant la loi…
Le souci d’une application concrète est manifeste tout au long du texte du protocole. Mais, c’est indéniablement la reconnaissance des droits économiques et la protection sociale aux femmes qui le révèle avec plus d’acuité.
Par le truchement de formes d’expression complémentaires ( énoncé concomitant de droits et de mesures concrètes de mise en œuvre) , ce protocole enrôle les droits énoncés d’une touche africaine en ce sens qu’il permet de mieux appréhender leur signification dans la réalité africaine.
Le droit à la sécurité alimentaire, la création encouragée de système de protection et d’assurance sociale en faveur des femmes travaillant dans le secteur informel, la garantie aux femmes des congés de maternité adéquats et payés avant et après l’accouchement aussi bien dans le secteur privé que dans le secteur public sont autant de revendications qui ont un sens réel pour les femmes africaines.
Décidément, le protocole a l’indicible mérite de faire descendre les droits des femmes de la bulle impalpable de l’universel pour les faire admettre par l’entendement de tout à chacun.
Ce plaidoyer en faveur de la ratification du protocole par tous les Etats africains trouve fondement et justification de par cette caractéristique. Les Etats africains disposent pour leur grande majorité de dispositions constitutionnelles et législatives affirmant les droits des femmes et soulignant leur égalité avec les hommes dans tous les domaines de la vie. La ratification du protocole induira, en sus des droits énoncés, l’obligation conventionnelle de traduire en actes et mesures concrets les principes et droits ainsi énoncés.

En outre , en vertu des dispositions de l’article 26 du protocole régissant la mise en œuvre et son suivi, les Etats ont l’obligation d’incorporer dans leurs rapports périodiques présentés par devant la Commission Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples, des indications sur les mesures législatives ou autres qu’ils ont prises pour la pleine réalisation des droits reconnus dans le protocole.

L’alinéa 2 de l’article 26 précitée à l’avantage de mettre en exergue le maillon faible voire handicapant des politiques africaines de promotion de la femme : la question budgétaire.
Ainsi, les Etats sont- ils tenus d’allouer les ressources budgétaires adéquates et autres pour la mise en œuvre effective des droits reconnus dans le protocole.
En effet, force est de déplorer la dépendance financière étroite des départements ministériels en charge de la femme, du bien-être familial et de l’enfance vis à vis des organisations internationales et autres bailleurs de fond. Aussi louable soit-elle la coopération internationale, l’engagement d’un Etat , sa détermination à en faire de la promotion de la femme son fer de lance gouvernemental, se jaugent à l’aune de la part significative du budget accordé aux différents départements en charge de ces questions mais également au soutien effectif accordé aux ONG et associations nationales engagés au quotidien dans ce noble combat.

- L’innovation du protocole

Considérant la situation particulière des femmes âgées confrontées au premier chef au lourd handicap de l’analphabétisme et de la pauvreté, le protocole africain relatif aux droits des femmes prévoit une protection spéciale des femmes âgées.
En symbiose avec l’évolution sociétale africaine où le nombre de familles monoparentales dirigés par des femmes s’accroît, le protocole assure la protection des femmes chefs de famille , issues de populations marginales ; Partageant la vérité selon laquelle « la pauvreté a un visage de femme en Afrique », ce protocole assure une protection spéciale des femmes en situation de détresse, incluant la protection des femmes incarcérées en état de grossesse ou allaitant.
La reconnaissance des droits de la veuve est un bond en avant dans nos sociétés africaines en mutation. En effet, les traditions sont délibérément bafouées, sujettes à des manipulations interprétatives du fait d’un contexte socio-économique difficile où tous les moyens semblent être bons pour spolier les personnes vulnérables..

Mais, l’avancée notoire de ce protocole s’ordonne autour de la reconnaissance du droit de participation des femmes africaines au processus politique et à la prise de décisions ; Ce droit en soi n’est pas une innovation puisqu’il a été consacré depuis 1952 par la convention onusienne sur les droits politiques des femmes, repris dans ses dispositions par le pacte de 1966 sur les droits civils et politiques.
Cependant, force est de constater l’effet avant-gardiste de l’article 9 du protocole par l’entrée, pour la première fois, dans le jargon des traités ou convention internationales du terme parité.
En vertu du l’article 9, les Etats entreprennent des actions positives spécifiques pour promouvoir la gouvernance participative et la participation paritaire des femmes dans la vie politique de leur pays, à travers une action affirmative et une législation nationale.
Les points b) et c ) dudit article sont d’une portée juridique considérable puisqu’ils ont l’avantage d’expliciter la distinction entre égalité de chances et égalité de résultats.
L’obligation de parité est dans le point b ) exigée à tous les niveaux dans les processus électoraux. On parle, en revanche de partenariat, de femmes partenaires égales des hommes à tous les niveaux de l’élaboration et de la mise en œuvre des politiques et des programmes de développement de l’Etat.
En effet, le processus électoral est dans un système démocratique, la chasse gardée des électeurs, du peuple et de ses choix ; favoriser la femme dans la représentation sur les listes électorales des partis est une chose mais le vote en faveur de telle ou telle liste incombe au choix des électeurs.
La limite entre l’obligation des Etats et la souveraineté du peuple est dûment tracée.

Dans le prolongement de cette nouvelle exigence démocratique qu’est la participation paritaire des hommes et des femmes dans la vie politique de leur pays, le rôle crucial de la femme africaine dans la consolidation de la paix, dans l’édification d’un environnement sain et viable , dans la contribution au processus de développement …est érigé au rang de droits de la femme africaine.
Paix et développement sont interdépendants tout comme démocratie et respect des droits de l’homme sont intimement liés.
Les droits de l’homme sont indissociables des droits de la femme. Le genre humain est constitué d’un couple. Et c’est la vie en harmonie de ce couple éternel que préconisent les dispositions du protocole à la charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples relatif au droit des femmes .
Force est de souligner, d’un point de vue juridique, que le droit à la paix et le droit au développement gagnent une portée juridique contraignante puisque solennellement reconnus dans une convention ; jusque là, ces droits-solidarité n’avaient eu qu’une consécration par déclarations de l’Assemblée Générale des Nations-Unies.

Enfin, l’atout majeur de ce protocole, c’est qu’elle vise à harmoniser les différents systèmes juridiques régissant les droits de la famille et/ou de la femme. En effet, faut- il rappeler les contradictions du pluralisme juridique en Afrique du fait de la superposition de différents régimes juridiques et droits applicables.
La famille dans bon nombre d’Etats africains est régi par le droit coutumier ou la charia dans les Etats musulmans.
Ainsi, des brèches substantielles aux principes d’égalité et de non discrimination consacrés pourtant dans la constitution (charte fondamentale au premier rang dans la hiérarchie des normes ) sont « légalisées » au nom des traditions ou de la religion.

La rédaction subtile de l’article 6 du protocole relatif au mariage et notamment les dispositions du point c) dudit article expriment la volonté de conciliation de paradigmes opposés.
Les dispositions de l’article 7 exigeant le prononcé par voie judiciaire de la séparation du corps, de divorce, de l’annulation du mariage rassurent les femmes africaines musulmanes libérées du joug des religieux.

Ce protocole a l’ambition de vouloir concilier les différentes conceptions de la femme en Afrique. Il vise ainsi à confondre les particularismes régionaux dans le moule de l’Universel .

La rédaction de l’article 6 point c portant sur les formes du mariage met au lumière la mission de compromis que s’est assignée ce protocole. Elle met ainsi en avant la recherche d’une Afrique nouvelle mue par une communauté de valeurs et de pensée vivant dans l’harmonie et fuyant les contradictions.

La préservation des valeurs africaines incombe aux femmes, gardiennes légendaires de traditions et reconnues à notre époque pour leur combat inlassable en faveur de la paix, de la liberté, de la dignité, de la justice et de la solidarité.

Voilà un argument suffisant en soi pour encourager les Etats africains à ratifier à l’instar de la république des Comores le protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.


Madame Zeinab Kamil Ali
Membre du Comité des Droits de l’Homme
Djibouti

3. The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A challenge for Africa and women

Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22721

The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women by the Conference of the Heads of State and Government (the Conference) at the African Union (AU) meeting in Maputo in July 2003 was undeniably an important event in the history of African women's struggle for the recognition of their rights.

This Protocol, the fruits of exemplary collaboration between the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (the Commission) and civil society organisations, was identified as a priority for the promotion and protection of the rights of African women during a workshop in March 1995 on women's rights, organised by the Commission, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) and the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva.

The workshop recommended that a protocol on women's rights should be established and a Special Rapporteur on the rights of women should be nominated. The Conference of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mandated the Commission to initiate and coordinate the process of developing a preliminary draft of the protocol. A working group was put in place to propose a text. Since the beginning, the process has been very participatory.

Civil society organisations mobilized themselves to enrich the first version written by the working group. This mobilization increased during the process, as more and more organisations became interested in all steps of the development of the protocol. The numerous ups and downs that punctuated the process sometimes worried civil society members. The long wait between the first and the second meetings, due to successive postponement of the second one, and in the absence of a quorum, was one of the most difficult moments.

However, the lobbying efforts of civil society and the determination of the officers of the African Union responsible for the file resulted in the second meeting of experts. This was followed by a meeting of ministers implicated in the process, who succeeded in registering the protocol on the agenda of the Council of Ministers in July 2003. Eight years after the beginning of the process, the protocol was thus finally adopted by Heads of State.

I relive the joy manifested by the lobby of women's organisations at the announcement of the protocol's adoption, and salute the cooperation that coalesced between certain commissioners and these women. But nobody was fooled! Once the protocol was adopted, there remained many equally important steps to take: to obtain the necessary signatures and ratifications for its entry into force and to respond to the challenge of its effective implementation.

One year on, where are we at in the process? Thirty signatures and one ratification had been registered by 15 June 2004, less than three weeks before the next AU Heads of State and Government Conference. Twelve of the signatory countries are in West Africa, eight in East African and five in southern Africa. Lobbying work must continue in all the regions of Africa, particularly in Central and North Africa, where only three and two signatures, respectively, have been registered. It is important to note that we are still far, very far, from the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. And the question of its ratification must absolutely, in one-way or another, be added to the agenda of the July 2004 Summit in Addis-Ababa, in the interests of women, African populations and the African Union.

But why is ratification of the protocol so important?

For African women, the entry into force of the protocol will be an essential step towards the recognition of their rights, the daily violations of which are the source of immense suffering. The protocol will offer, following the example of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a legal framework of reference, allowing diverse actors, as well as the population, to daily work towards the effective respect of women's rights. But, in addition to CEDAW, the legal framework of the protocol reflects specific violations to African women. Its preamble justifies the adoption of the protocol by the existence of discriminations against women and harmful traditional practices, despite commitments taken by States at regional and international levels. It also expresses leaders' formal support to the principle of equality between men and women.

In addition to these declarations, the protocol contains provisions to respond to problems as crucial as the multiple violations of rights in marital relations, violence and grave risks to the life, physical and moral integrity, and security of women and girls, the pressing reality of which we cannot deny in our societies. The entry into force of the protocol offers an invaluable framework to end violations against civilian, refugee and combatant women and children, particularly girls, in periods of conflict, and to uphold the challenge of peace in Africa, a condition sine qua non of development.

The fight against traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls needs the protocol, which provides guidelines for eliminating them. Economic and social rights as vital as the right to health, including reproductive health, to education and to inheritance rights for widows and girls, which are daily transgressed out of ignorance or deliberately, would be better protected if actions taken could rely on adequate measures, such as those recommended in the protocol. Definitively, there is no doubt that, in the interests of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Africa, the protocol on women's rights must be ratified as quickly as possible.

For African populations and societies, the absence of a legal framework of reference to fight against violations of women's rights currently constitutes a real handicap for the optimal participation of women in the development of their countries and of Africa, even though they constitute more than 50% of the population of the continent.

Finally, the credibility of the AU, which demonstrated its commitment to promote women's participation and gender equality, notably through parity in the AU Commission and in the equitable representation of Judges of the African Court for Human and People's Rights, rests on proving its coherence and consistency by implementing the protocol without delay. By doing so, the AU and its member States will show the world that, for them also, women's rights are truly an integral part of human rights, and that they are determined to promote and protect them without any discrimination.

The imminent entry into force of the protocol will mark, in sum, a decisive step towards entrenching a culture of respect and exercise of the human rights of women in African societies. For all these reasons, every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation. Our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, including those who are rarely accustomed to demand their rights, cry for help in a meaningful silence, but are often too quickly assimilated into resignation. It depends on each person to ensure that the voice of the voiceless are finally heard by those who are responsible for the fate of African populations.

* Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is the Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa, West Africa

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.

L'adoption du Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme par la Conférence des Chefs d'États et de Gouvernement (la Conférence) de l'Union Africaine (UA) réunie à Maputo en juillet 2003 fût sans conteste un événement important dans l'histoire de la lutte des femmes africaines pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits.

Ce protocole, fruit d'une collaboration exemplaire entre la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (la Commission) et les organisations de la société civile a été ressenti comme une priorité pour la promotion et la protection des droits des femmes africaines au cours d'un atelier en mars 1995 organisé par la Commission en collaboration avec le WiLDAF/FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique) et la Commission Internationale de Juristes basé à Genève.

The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa will be an important step towards entrenching the human rights of women. But KAFUI ADJAMAGBO-JOHNSON points out that it is important to note that it is along way to the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. “Every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation.”


The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A challenge for Africa and women
Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson

The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women by the Conference of the Heads of State and Government (the Conference) at the African Union (AU) meeting in Maputo in July 2003 was undeniably an important event in the history of African women's struggle for the recognition of their rights.

This Protocol, the fruits of exemplary collaboration between the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (the Commission) and civil society organisations, was identified as a priority for the promotion and protection of the rights of African women during a workshop in March 1995 on women's rights, organised by the Commission, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) and the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva.

The workshop recommended that a protocol on women's rights should be established and a Special Rapporteur on the rights of women should be nominated. The Conference of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mandated the Commission to initiate and coordinate the process of developing a preliminary draft of the protocol. A working group was put in place to propose a text. Since the beginning, the process has been very participatory.

Civil society organisations mobilized themselves to enrich the first version written by the working group. This mobilization increased during the process, as more and more organisations became interested in all steps of the development of the protocol. The numerous ups and downs that punctuated the process sometimes worried civil society members. The long wait between the first and the second meetings, due to successive postponement of the second one, and in the absence of a quorum, was one of the most difficult moments.

However, the lobbying efforts of civil society and the determination of the officers of the African Union responsible for the file resulted in the second meeting of experts. This was followed by a meeting of ministers implicated in the process, who succeeded in registering the protocol on the agenda of the Council of Ministers in July 2003. Eight years after the beginning of the process, the protocol was thus finally adopted by Heads of State.

I relive the joy manifested by the lobby of women's organisations at the announcement of the protocol's adoption, and salute the cooperation that coalesced between certain commissioners and these women. But nobody was fooled! Once the protocol was adopted, there remained many equally important steps to take: to obtain the necessary signatures and ratifications for its entry into force and to respond to the challenge of its effective implementation.

One year on, where are we at in the process? Thirty signatures and one ratification had been registered by 15 June 2004, less than three weeks before the next AU Heads of State and Government Conference. Twelve of the signatory countries are in West Africa, eight in East African and five in southern Africa. Lobbying work must continue in all the regions of Africa, particularly in Central and North Africa, where only three and two signatures, respectively, have been registered. It is important to note that we are still far, very far, from the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. And the question of its ratification must absolutely, in one-way or another, be added to the agenda of the July 2004 Summit in Addis-Ababa, in the interests of women, African populations and the African Union.

But why is ratification of the protocol so important?

For African women, the entry into force of the protocol will be an essential step towards the recognition of their rights, the daily violations of which are the source of immense suffering. The protocol will offer, following the example of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a legal framework of reference, allowing diverse actors, as well as the population, to daily work towards the effective respect of women's rights. But, in addition to CEDAW, the legal framework of the protocol reflects specific violations to African women. Its preamble justifies the adoption of the protocol by the existence of discriminations against women and harmful traditional practices, despite commitments taken by States at regional and international levels. It also expresses leaders' formal support to the principle of equality between men and women.

In addition to these declarations, the protocol contains provisions to respond to problems as crucial as the multiple violations of rights in marital relations, violence and grave risks to the life, physical and moral integrity, and security of women and girls, the pressing reality of which we cannot deny in our societies. The entry into force of the protocol offers an invaluable framework to end violations against civilian, refugee and combatant women and children, particularly girls, in periods of conflict, and to uphold the challenge of peace in Africa, a condition sine qua non of development.

The fight against traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls needs the protocol, which provides guidelines for eliminating them. Economic and social rights as vital as the right to health, including reproductive health, to education and to inheritance rights for widows and girls, which are daily transgressed out of ignorance or deliberately, would be better protected if actions taken could rely on adequate measures, such as those recommended in the protocol. Definitively, there is no doubt that, in the interests of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Africa, the protocol on women's rights must be ratified as quickly as possible.

For African populations and societies, the absence of a legal framework of reference to fight against violations of women's rights currently constitutes a real handicap for the optimal participation of women in the development of their countries and of Africa, even though they constitute more than 50% of the population of the continent.

Finally, the credibility of the AU, which demonstrated its commitment to promote women's participation and gender equality, notably through parity in the AU Commission and in the equitable representation of Judges of the African Court for Human and People's Rights, rests on proving its coherence and consistency by implementing the protocol without delay. By doing so, the AU and its member States will show the world that, for them also, women's rights are truly an integral part of human rights, and that they are determined to promote and protect them without any discrimination.

The imminent entry into force of the protocol will mark, in sum, a decisive step towards entrenching a culture of respect and exercise of the human rights of women in African societies. For all these reasons, every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation. Our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, including those who are rarely accustomed to demand their rights, cry for help in a meaningful silence, but are often too quickly assimilated into resignation. It depends on each person to ensure that the voice of the voiceless are finally heard by those who are responsible for the fate of African populations.

* Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is the Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa, West Africa

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.
L'entrée en vigueur du protocole sur les droits des femmes en Afrique : un défi pour l'Afrique et les femmes
L'adoption du Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme par la Conférence des Chefs d'États et de Gouvernement (la Conférence) de l'Union Africaine (UA) réunie à Maputo en juillet 2003 fût sans conteste un événement important dans l'histoire de la lutte des femmes africaines pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits.
Ce protocole, fruit d'une collaboration exemplaire entre la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (la Commission) et les organisations de la société civile a été ressenti comme une priorité pour la promotion et la protection des droits des femmes africaines au cours d'un atelier en mars 1995 organisé par la Commission en collaboration avec le WiLDAF/FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique) et la Commission Internationale de Juristes basé à Genève.
Les recommandations de l'atelier préconisaient qu’un protocole sur les droits de la femme voit le jour et que soit nommé un Rapporteur spécial sur les droits de la femme. La Conférence de l'ancienne Organisation de l’Unité Africaine (OUA) a mandaté la Commission pour initier et coordonner le processus d'élaboration d'un avant projet de protocole. Un groupe de travail fût mis en place pour proposer un texte.
Dès les débuts, le processus a été très participatif. Les organisations de la société civile se sont mobilisées pour enrichir la première version rédigée par le groupe de travail. La mobilisation s’est accrue tout le long du processus car de plus en plus d'organisations s'intéressaient à toutes les étapes d’élaboration du protocole. Les nombreuses péripéties qui ont jalonné le processus ont parfois donné des sueurs froides à la société civile. La longue attente entre la première et la seconde réunion des experts, à cause des reports successifs faute de quorum, a été l'un des moments les plus durs.
Mais les efforts de lobbying de la société civile et la détermination marquée par les responsables de l'UA en charge du dossier ont forcé la tenue de la deuxième réunion des experts. Elle a été suivie de celle des ministres que le processus concernait qui ont réussi à obtenir l'inscription du protocole à l'agenda du Conseil des Ministres en juillet 2003. Huit ans après le démarrage du processus, le protocole a donc finalement été adopté par les Chefs d'États.
Je revis la joie manifestée par le lobby des organisations de femmes à l'annonce de son adoption et je salue la complicité qui a fini par se nouer entre certains commissaires et ces femmes pour qui ils sont devenus des alliés. Mais personne n'était dupe ! Le protocole adopté, il restait à franchir des étapes tout aussi importante : obtenir les signatures et les ratifications nécessaires pour son entrée en vigueur et relever de défi de son application effective.
Un an après, où en est le processus? Trente (30) signatures et une ratification ont été enregistrées au 15 juin 2004, à moins de trois semaines de la prochaine Conférence des Chefs d'État et de Gouvernement de l'UA. Douze des pays signataires proviennent de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, huit (8) d’Afrique de l'Est et cinq (5) d’Afrique Australe. Le travail de lobbying doit continuer dans toutes les régions d’Afrique, notamment en Afrique Centrale et du Nord où a été enregistré respectivement 3 et 2 signatures seulement. Force est de constater que nous sommes encore loin, bien loin du compte en ce qui concerne les 15 ratifications nécessaires pour l'entrée en vigueur du protocole ! Et la question de sa ratification doit absolument être d'une manière ou d'une autre ajouter à l'ordre du jour du Sommet d'Addis-Abeba de juillet 2004 en vue d'une solution rapide dans l'intérêt des femmes, des populations africaines et de l'Union africaine.
Mais pourquoi la ratification du protocole est-elle aussi importante?
Pour les femmes africaines, l'entrée en vigueur du protocole sera une étape essentielle vers la reconnaissance de droits dont les violations quotidiennes sont source d’immenses souffrances. Le protocole offrira, à l'instar de la Convention sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l'égard des femmes (CEDEF), un cadre juridique de référence permettant à divers acteurs ainsi qu'aux populations d'œuvrer au quotidien au respect effectif des droits des femmes.
Mais plus que la CEDEF, le cadre juridique du protocole est le reflet des violations spécifiques aux femmes africaines. Le préambule justifie l'adoption du protocole par la subsistance de discriminations à l'égard des femmes et de pratiques traditionnelles néfastes, et ce malgré les engagements pris par les Etats sur le plan international et régional. Il exprime également de manière solennelle l'adhésion des dirigeants au principe de l'égalité entre hommes et femmes.
Au-delà de ces déclarations, le protocole permettra à travers ses dispositions de traiter des problèmes aussi cruciaux que les violations multiformes de droits dans les relations du mariage, les violences, graves atteintes à la vie, à l'intégrité physique et morale et à la sécurité des femmes et des filles, dont nul ne peut nier la réalité criarde dans nos sociétés. L'entrée en vigueur du protocole offre un cadre irremplaçable pour mettre fin aux violations dont les femmes et les enfants, notamment les filles, sont victimes en période de conflits en tant que civils, réfugiés ou soldats, et de relever le défi de la paix en Afrique, condition sine qua non du développement.
La lutte contre les pratiques traditionnelles néfastes à la santé des femmes et des filles a besoin du protocole qui donne des directives afin de les éliminer. Les droits économiques et sociaux aussi vitaux que le droit à la santé, y compris la santé de la reproduction, celui à l'éducation et les droits successoraux des veuves et des filles, qui sont quotidiennement bafoués par ignorance ou délibérément, seraient mieux protégés si les actions menées pouvaient s'appuyer sur les mesures adéquates comme celles préconisées par le protocole. En définitive, il n'y a aucun doute que dans l'intérêt des centaines de milliers de femmes et de filles d'Afrique, le protocole relatif aux droits des femmes doit être ratifié le plus rapidement possible.
Pour les populations et les sociétés africaines, l'absence d'un cadre juridique de référence permettant de lutter contre les violations des droits des femmes constitue actuellement un véritable handicap pour une participation optimale des femmes dans le développement de leurs pays et de l’Afrique alors qu’elles constituent plus de 50 % de la population du continent.
Enfin, il y va de la crédibilité de l’UA qui a démontré son engagement à promouvoir la participation des femmes et l'égalité des sexes, notamment avec la parité au sein de la Commission de l’UA et de la représentation équitable des Juges de la Cour Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples, de faire preuve de cohérence et de constance, en rendant applicable dans les meilleurs délais le protocole. Ce faisant, l'UA et les Etats membres montreront à la face du monde que, pour eux aussi, les droits des femmes font vraiment partie intégrante des droits humains qu'ils sont déterminés à promouvoir et à protéger sans aucune discrimination.
La prochaine entrée en vigueur du protocole marquera, en somme, une étape décisive vers l’enracinement d’une culture de respect et d'exercice des droits humains des femmes dans les sociétés africaines. Pour toutes ces raisons, tout militant de droits humains, homme ou femme, devrait se sentir concerné et agir auprès des autorités gouvernementales et parlementaires afin de les convaincre de ratifier et de prendre des mesures pour une application effective du protocole relatif aux droits des femmes.
Nos mères, nos filles, et nos sœurs, y compris celles qui sont peu habituées à revendiquer leurs droits, crient à l’aide dans un silence lourd de signification, mais parfois trop rapidement assimilé à de la résignation. Il dépend de chacun, que la voix des sans voix soit enfin entendue par ceux qui président aux destinés des populations en Afrique.

4. African states: Equal to the task?

Hannah Forster

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22727

Background:

An important step to establish a legal framework for the promotion and protection of the rights of women throughout the African continent was taken when The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted on 11 July 2003 by the Assembly of the African Union during its second summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

Scope:

The new protocol will complement the African Charter in advancing and ensuring the human rights of the African woman. It covers a broad range of human rights issues, including:

- Access to justice and equal protection before the law;
- The right to life, integrity and security of person; the right to inheritance, and calls for affirmative action to promote equal participation in the political and decision making process; equal representation of women in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies as an integral part of equal protection and benefit of the law;
- The broad range of economic, social and cultural rights for women i.e. the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to adequate and paid maternity leave in both private and public sectors; the rights of particularly vulnerable groups of women i.e. the elderly women, disabled women, widows, 'women in distress' - pregnant or nursing women in detention, poor women, women from marginalized population groups are all recognised; protection against harmful traditional practice; for women in armed conflict; refugee women; right to food security and adequate housing; and recognition of the right of women to participate in the promotion and maintenance of peace.

Landmark provisions highlight:

- The reproductive right of women to medical abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother; and
- The legal prohibition of female genital mutilation.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will supervise the implementation of the Protocol pending the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

States Parties to the Protocol commit themselves among others:
- To indicate in their periodic reports to the African Commission the legislative and other measures undertaken to ensure the full realization of the rights recognised in the Protocol;
-To include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments these fundamental principles and ensure their effective implementation;
- To integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans, and activities and to ensure the overall well-being of women; and
- To take effective measure to prevent the exploitation and abuse of women in advertising and pornography.

The Protocol will enter into force thirty (30) days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15) instrument of ratification. The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) has followed the process of the Protocol with keen interest since the beginning of the discourse in the early 1990s. The lobby for the Protocol has mobilised a wide number of networks when the inadequacies of the African Charter in providing for the rights of women was realized. ACDHRS has served as a member of the working group set up by the African Commission to develop and formulate the first draft which was forwarded to the AU, then OAU. Over the years, the Centre continued to work closely with other organisations and activists on the continent to maximize on our collective collaborative resources to advance this giant step in the cause of human rights.

The adoption of the Protocol ushers in a new and significant era in the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Africa. To date, only one country has ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, while 30 have signed, thus indicating their intention.

The Appeal

While the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies congratulates African Governments for taking the step of adopting the Protocol, we would wish to urge member states to pursue the process of ratification of the Protocol with much vigour and speed to ensure a prompt entry into force of the instrument and therefore its implementation. If the Protocol is ratified and fully implemented, it has the potential to become an important framework to end impunity for all forms of violations of the human rights of women in Africa. Furthermore, the action of ratifying and ushering in implementation would reinforce commitment to end discrimination and violence against women. The women of Africa who have suffered for so long, whose efforts at building our beloved continent have gone on for too long without acknowledgement, and indeed the men of Africa, should be equalled to the task. This is a challenge and a duty we all owe to posterity and to Africa.

We therefore add our voice to all those of our brothers and sisters calling on states to stand up to this challenge and perform the duty it requires. The momentum should not be lost less history judges us unequalled to responsibility.

* Hannah Forster is Executive Director of the African Centre on Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Background:

An important step to establish a legal framework for the promotion and protection of the rights of women throughout the African continent was taken when The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted on 11 July 2003 by the Assembly of the African Union during its second summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

Scope:

The new protocol will complement the African Charter in advancing and ensuring the human rights of the African woman. It covers a broad range of human rights issues, including:

- Access to justice and equal protection before the law;
- The right to life, integrity and security of person; the right to inheritance, and calls for affirmative action to promote equal participation in the political and decision making process; equal representation of women in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies as an integral part of equal protection and benefit of the law;
- The broad range of economic, social and cultural rights for women i.e. the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to adequate and paid maternity leave in both private and public sectors; the rights of particularly vulnerable groups of women i.e. the elderly women, disabled women, widows, 'women in distress' - pregnant or nursing women in detention, poor women, women from marginalized population groups are all recognised; protection against harmful traditional practice; for women in armed conflict; refugee women; right to food security and adequate housing; and recognition of the right of women to participate in the promotion and maintenance of peace.

Landmark provisions highlight:

- The reproductive right of women to medical abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother; and
- The legal prohibition of female genital mutilation.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will supervise the implementation of the Protocol pending the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

States Parties to the Protocol commit themselves among others:
- To indicate in their periodic reports to the African Commission the legislative and other measures undertaken to ensure the full realization of the rights recognised in the Protocol;
-To include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments these fundamental principles and ensure their effective implementation;
- To integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans, and activities and to ensure the overall well-being of women; and
- To take effective measure to prevent the exploitation and abuse of women in advertising and pornography.

The Protocol will enter into force thirty (30) days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15) instrument of ratification. The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) has followed the process of the Protocol with keen interest since the beginning of the discourse in the early 1990s. The lobby for the Protocol has mobilised a wide number of networks when the inadequacies of the African Charter in providing for the rights of women was realized. ACDHRS has served as a member of the working group set up by the African Commission to develop and formulate the first draft which was forwarded to the AU, then OAU. Over the years, the Centre continued to work closely with other organisations and activists on the continent to maximize on our collective collaborative resources to advance this giant step in the cause of human rights.

The adoption of the Protocol ushers in a new and significant era in the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Africa. To date, only one country has ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, while 30 have signed, thus indicating their intention.

The Appeal

While the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies congratulates African Governments for taking the step of adopting the Protocol, we would wish to urge member states to pursue the process of ratification of the Protocol with much vigour and speed to ensure a prompt entry into force of the instrument and therefore its implementation. If the Protocol is ratified and fully implemented, it has the potential to become an important framework to end impunity for all forms of violations of the human rights of women in Africa. Furthermore, the action of ratifying and ushering in implementation would reinforce commitment to end discrimination and violence against women. The women of Africa who have suffered for so long, whose efforts at building our beloved continent have gone on for too long without acknowledgement, and indeed the men of Africa, should be equalled to the task. This is a challenge and a duty we all owe to posterity and to Africa.

We therefore add our voice to all those of our brothers and sisters calling on states to stand up to this challenge and perform the duty it requires. The momentum should not be lost less history judges us unequalled to responsibility.

* Hannah Forster is Executive Director of the African Centre on Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

5. Time to take count of Africa's daughters

Gichinga Ndirangu

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22723

The adoption of the African Union Protocol represented a significant step in affirming the commitment of governments against gender discrimination and violence. In its wake, the protocol has strengthened the motivation for African governments to align their laws and policies in line with the expectations of the protocol.

The protocol bears testament to the tremendous involvement by many civil society groups, gender and human rights activists who held vigil throughout the long wait on its adoption. More significantly, it represents the collective determination by African governments to safeguard the rights of women.

But like all good laws and policies, the greatest challenge lies in translating the fine print into concrete action and thus giving meaning to laudable intent. It is on this issue that African governments must seize opportunity and work in concert in taking the next crucial step - domesticating its provisions into national law.

At the moment, the scorecard looks fairly disappointing. Only one country - The Comoros - has ratified the Protocol to date. A minimum 14 more must ratify it in order to bring the protocol into operation. While raising this number must be a reason for persistent advocacy and challenge on individual governments, the broader concern must be that of getting all African governments to ratify the protocol. Good is no good where better can be attained and African governments must be more ambitious on numbers.

Individual governments must feel sufficiently challenged to ratify without the need for prodding or pressure. That a laudable document of this stature should remain unratified since its adoption is enough reason for concern and an urgent call to action.

Attention will also need to shift towards creating the relevant institutional mechanism on which to articulate the rights of women. That infrastructure must be empowering, innovative and one that provides an important building block in consolidating the gains made on women rights. It must also be one that challenges existing prejudices and seeks to correct traditions and practices that support retrogressive structures.

National governments must therefore broaden their view on women's rights and recognize them as indispensable to the evolution of a democratic culture. The current phase of renaissance in Africa, best exemplified by the evolution of political maturity and democratic culture, can only be strengthened more not less, by paying closer attention to the rights of women.

However, African governments must avoid the trap of tokenism and paying obeisance to women's rights without sufficiently rooting these in the policy and legislative framework. For instance, one would wish to see better prioritization on women supported by gender budgeting in planning government spending. Governments must match rhetoric and intent with resources.

Ultimately, however, the cause of women will depend in large measure, on the commitment of each one of us. In our own small ways, there is much that we can do to entrench the rights of women and thus affirm the objects of the AU protocol. That first, small step that counts in the journey of a thousand miles must start with each and everyone of us - today because tomorrow may be too late.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
The adoption of the African Union Protocol represented a significant step in affirming the commitment of governments against gender discrimination and violence. In its wake, the protocol has strengthened the motivation for African governments to align their laws and policies in line with the expectations of the protocol.

The protocol bears testament to the tremendous involvement by many civil society groups, gender and human rights activists who held vigil throughout the long wait on its adoption. More significantly, it represents the collective determination by African governments to safeguard the rights of women.

But like all good laws and policies, the greatest challenge lies in translating the fine print into concrete action and thus giving meaning to laudable intent. It is on this issue that African governments must seize opportunity and work in concert in taking the next crucial step - domesticating its provisions into national law.

At the moment, the scorecard looks fairly disappointing. Only one country - The Comoros - has ratified the Protocol to date. A minimum 14 more must ratify it in order to bring the protocol into operation. While raising this number must be a reason for persistent advocacy and challenge on individual governments, the broader concern must be that of getting all African governments to ratify the protocol. Good is no good where better can be attained and African governments must be more ambitious on numbers.

Individual governments must feel sufficiently challenged to ratify without the need for prodding or pressure. That a laudable document of this stature should remain unratified since its adoption is enough reason for concern and an urgent call to action.

Attention will also need to shift towards creating the relevant institutional mechanism on which to articulate the rights of women. That infrastructure must be empowering, innovative and one that provides an important building block in consolidating the gains made on women rights. It must also be one that challenges existing prejudices and seeks to correct traditions and practices that support retrogressive structures.

National governments must therefore broaden their view on women's rights and recognize them as indispensable to the evolution of a democratic culture. The current phase of renaissance in Africa, best exemplified by the evolution of political maturity and democratic culture, can only be strengthened more not less, by paying closer attention to the rights of women.

However, African governments must avoid the trap of tokenism and paying obeisance to women's rights without sufficiently rooting these in the policy and legislative framework. For instance, one would wish to see better prioritization on women supported by gender budgeting in planning government spending. Governments must match rhetoric and intent with resources.

Ultimately, however, the cause of women will depend in large measure, on the commitment of each one of us. In our own small ways, there is much that we can do to entrench the rights of women and thus affirm the objects of the AU protocol. That first, small step that counts in the journey of a thousand miles must start with each and everyone of us - today because tomorrow may be too late.

6. Making governments accountable

Dr Sylvia Tamale

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22724

July 11, 2004 will mark one year since the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique adopted the Protocol on the Rights of African Women. Adoption of the Protocol was a landmark development in the continental struggle to liberate more than half of its citizens.

However, it will take 15 ratifications before this Africa-specific version of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) - adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly - becomes legally enforceable. So far only one country has ratified (Comoros).

Given that 53 countries on the continent have already ratified the parent treaty of this Protocol, i.e., The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Banjul Charter), which treaty effectively domesticated CEDAW and other international conventions and declarations that address women’s rights, ratification of the Protocol should not be a problem.

Article 18(3) of the parent charter provides: “The State shall ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the woman and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions.” Hence, the Protocol is merely an elaboration of an already existing obligation on the part of these 53 states.

The Banjul Charter was adopted in June 1981. One year later, in June 1982, only Mali and Guinea had ratified the charter. In other words, we should not panic over what appears to be the slow process of ratifying the Protocol. It is not out of step with the bureaucratic red tape that normally guides these processes.

If the Comoros - a country that is not particularly exemplary in upholding women’s rights (an elected female entered parliament for the first time in 1993) - has ratified, many others will surely follow. Having said that, we should not be complacent in prodding our governments to ratify as soon as possible.

I believe that the women’s movements on the continent should spend more energy strategizing on the implementation of the Protocol provisions. How do we turn the Protocol into a real instrument of accountability with which to challenge our governments?

Most of our governments ratify international human rights instruments, not so much because of a political commitment to the content but because of political expediency and maintaining a good image among the international community. At best, such ratification is a pro forma exercise; at worst, it is a nuisance that they must live with.

However, once ratification is effected, our governments are pledging to be accountable for adhering to all the provisions (except where they entered reservations for specific provisions) of the treaty. It is our duty to make our governments more accountable.

* Dr Sylvia Tamale is a feminist activist and Senior Lecturer at Makerere University's Law Faculty

* How can we make our governments more accountable? Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
July 11, 2004 will mark one year since the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique adopted the Protocol on the Rights of African Women. Adoption of the Protocol was a landmark development in the continental struggle to liberate more than half of its citizens.

However, it will take 15 ratifications before this Africa-specific version of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) - adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly - becomes legally enforceable. So far only one country has ratified (Comoros).

Given that 53 countries on the continent have already ratified the parent treaty of this Protocol, i.e., The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Banjul Charter), which treaty effectively domesticated CEDAW and other international conventions and declarations that address women’s rights, ratification of the Protocol should not be a problem.

Article 18(3) of the parent charter provides: “The State shall ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the woman and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions.” Hence, the Protocol is merely an elaboration of an already existing obligation on the part of these 53 states.

The Banjul Charter was adopted in June 1981. One year later, in June 1982, only Mali and Guinea had ratified the charter. In other words, we should not panic over what appears to be the slow process of ratifying the Protocol. It is not out of step with the bureaucratic red tape that normally guides these processes.

If the Comoros - a country that is not particularly exemplary in upholding women’s rights (an elected female entered parliament for the first time in 1993) - has ratified, many others will surely follow. Having said that, we should not be complacent in prodding our governments to ratify as soon as possible.

I believe that the women’s movements on the continent should spend more energy strategizing on the implementation of the Protocol provisions. How do we turn the Protocol into a real instrument of accountability with which to challenge our governments?

Most of our governments ratify international human rights instruments, not so much because of a political commitment to the content but because of political expediency and maintaining a good image among the international community. At best, such ratification is a pro forma exercise; at worst, it is a nuisance that they must live with.

However, once ratification is effected, our governments are pledging to be accountable for adhering to all the provisions (except where they entered reservations for specific provisions) of the treaty. It is our duty to make our governments more accountable.

* Dr Sylvia Tamale is a feminist activist and Senior Lecturer at Makerere University's Law Faculty

* How can we make our governments more accountable? Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

7. Zimbabwe's Women Acting Against AIDS

Isabella Matambanadzo

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22725

The archives of the regional southern Africa office of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has some precious photographs that offer a record of women's life experiences in the year 2003. In its own way, each image shows the very different ways women across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region endure a world in which poverty has increasingly determined the extent to which women are able to make choices. In one of the pictures four women in their late 20s and early 30s sit side by side, enjoying a moment of sisterhood in the African sunshine.

A shared experience connects them. They are all determined and gallant activists in the movement of women living with HIV and AIDS, agitating for their rights. Hope glows from their faces. Hope of an imminent victory in a struggle that seeks to set women free from all forms of oppression and injustice. But no amount of creative artistry could have enabled the photographer's lens to capture the story behind Angeline Chiwetani's glasses.

In 1999, the working mother of two young boys learned to be tough. She had hit the hardest of times. Her husband, HIV positive and without treatment, needed constant looking-after. Chiwetani drafted a letter of resignation and handed it over to her employers.

Moving away from a job that provided the family its sole income put Chiwetani's life at its darkest ever. For 12 long and lonely months she was miserable and knew little else but pain, anger and disappointment.

Women and the stigma of AIDS

"My marriage had problems. My husband used to go beyond our bedroom and have sexual relations with other women. I told my family lets talk and adjust the situation and they said I was trying to rule the roost, "says Chiwetani.

"No one came to see my husband except for my relatives and friends. My in laws, his brother and sisters labelled me a city woman. They meant I could go and sleep with any guy, " says Chiwetani, pointing to a kind of isolation that women caring for HIV positive husbands have repeatedly voiced.

Thousands of HIV positive women across the sub-Saharan African region daily suffer the nasty effects of gossip, ugly name-calling and being labelled everything from whore to witches. Their collective experiences show the extent to which addressing AIDS related stigma remains a critical priority for any actions aimed at cutting back the impacts of the epidemic on African women. Eliminating the segregation, isolation, emotional and psychological violence HIV positive women like Chiwetani and their families bear.

Women's resistance to AIDS gains momentum

Chiwetani has become a leader, organizing support and care for HIV positive women and their families and communities. The last four years have seen Chiwetani develop strength and resilience. Her boys, now aged 12 and seven, are at school and their grades have been encouraging. She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Network for Zimbabwe Positive Women (NZPW+), a not for profit group that supports more than 3000 HIV positive women across the country in various ways.

NZPW+ is supported by UNIFEM, through a special fund aimed at empowering HIV positive women to put pressure on public institutions to safeguard the rights of especially women living with HIV and AIDS.

"We need to get what we need to save ourselves", she says, running off her fingers some of the resources that HIV positive and other women need to secure empowerment and autonomy, "Education is key, so are jobs, access to treatments for the illnesses HIV positive women face and above all social and legal support".

She says a critical factor in providing support is to create a public and private environment that enables HIV positive women to live with their status. " I cannot emphasis how important it is to have stigma reduction programmes. This allows us to come out in the open and talk to some one who can comfort you and help you get over the stress, someone to share with. I opened up because when I got into this situation someone opened to me. I think I would be dead. There is no one to talk to you can get stressed up and have problems."

AIDS and Women's failing rights

Women and girls account for 58 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe that are deeply affected by the pandemic. In some instances girls aged 15 to 19 years are four to seven times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys within the same age group.

This reflects the low and oppressed status of women in Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe's women have paper rights enshrined in the National Gender Policy, a fracture exists between policy and lived reality. The AIDS pandemic has not only uncovered the very deeply ingrained sexual abuse, gender violence and impoverishment that especially poor black women experience, but it has also served to reinforce and provide new avenues of discriminating women and showing that a critical gap between proclamations and real change remains.

Sexist attitudes and sinister patriarchal practices that privilege men have kept women and poor, rural women in particular, in positions of deep disadvantage. Not only has this made women more vulnerable to HIV infection, but also forced women and girls into working as unpaid, unrecognized home nurses carrying the burden of community based care programmes.

The phenomenal sacrifice women of the sub-region make in nursing the AIDS affected, without appropriate training, equipment, food, water, firewood, money, medications or recognition, is a stunning sign of service. Yet it is also a form of exploitation that reveals the marginalisation of women and girls in societies that accept that women are unequal citizens who should be made to accept labour: washing soiled bedding and clothing, whipping wounds and sores, burying the dead without coffins, caring without knowledge or information or protection has led to a trauma so deep it is difficult to see recovery of families and communities from the burden.

AIDS, Women and the Family

As her husband's health deteriorated Chiwetani sent messages to his family requesting support. The harsh advice that came back was: "Go and stay in the village, near a grave," she says. The family did not want, in the event of her husband's death, the responsibility of moving his body from the city to the village where the funeral was bound to be.

On July 23 2000, while the rest of Zimbabwe was consumed by the headiness surrounding the constitutional reform debate and parliamentary elections, Chiwetani's husband died. "It happened in our house. When I sent a message to his brother the words that came back were "Tell her I am waiting for my wife to finish the laundry", she says.

In a short space of time Chiwetani had gone from wife to widow. No sooner had her husband's coffin been lowered into the grave that new difficulties emerged. A tug-of-war surrounding property believed to belong to the deceased put further strain on already mangled family relations.

HIV and AIDS? The Experience of Widows

"When I went home for the funeral, there was a lot of talk about how I had killed my husband and made him sick", explains Chiwetani. "My husband had amended his Will and reversed certain sections. The Will had been stamped by his lawyers. The family was not very happy that the children and I had been left with everything.”

Bitter inheritance disputes, that often leave widows and their children dispossessed and may even result in fatalities, have been the subject of extensive research by regional feminist networks such as the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, WLSA. The network, along with women's rights groups across the continent, has lobbied for legislative reforms that protect the property and inheritance rights of widows and children. AIDS Activists such as Chiwetani have recently added their weight behind the demands for just inheritance laws and legal practice before both civil and traditional courts.

"Zimbabwe's inheritance laws are very clear: widows and children are the rightful heirs to the deceased's estate, where there is a Will, its contents are meant to be respected,” says Arnold Tsunga, Co-ordinator of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). "Yet more than half of all inheritance disputes have women and girls as complainants. This is partly due to the prejudice women and children encounter through sexist legal practice and customary law that favours men as heirs."

Chiwetani couldn't agree more. "Wills are very important. They prevent people from grabbing property from widows at the time of need,” she says about the strategy that worked for her and her children. "Now that I have my life and our network is growing, my main worry is treatment for the women on whose behalf I have dedicated my life to.”

Women and AIDS Treatment Campaigns

With more than half of the people living with HIV and AIDS being women, treatment campaigns can no longer afford to sideline women's demands for appropriate care through service centres that meet the very specific needs of women.

As the UN's World Health Organisation rolls out its "3 by 5" campaign, which aims to have 3 million people on treatment by 2005, the momentum steadily gathering in the region to demand treatments will need to ensure that a significant number of the beneficiaries of treatment are women and girls living with the HIV.

"Treatment is something to do at all costs," says Jephias Mudondo, director of the Family AIDS Counselling Trust (FACT). "People are dying unnecessarily. The solution is political commitment. Commitment with action.”

"Women are more affected in a lot of ways. Even in infection by older men. Married men go out and get infected. A married woman is the most vulnerable person. When positive they carry all the burden. Poverty does not have access to treatment in the country. We have a programme of volunteers taking place. Of 600 volunteers only 10 are men. The rest are women. Community care impacts on them. When they get ill who do they get support from?"

AIDS and the Ballot Box

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination. Any other form of oppression would have caused massive outrage. The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.

On the eve of the National Conference on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe that ran June 15 to 18 women's rights activists showed their collective indignation at the deeply rooted gender and human rights violations that have allowed the full horror of this mammoth plague to emerge. Not providing early, affordable and accessible treatment, along with the resources so necessary for the disease's elimination has proved to be extremely costly and damaging.

As Zimbabwe moves closer to Parliamentary Elections planned for March 2005, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women, AIDS is steadily graining momentum as an issue of governance and democracy. Political will to tackle gender segregation in the context of AIDS will determine which way the millions of women whose lives have been rocked by the disease will cross their voting cards. After all, women command 52% of the vote.

* Isabella Matambanadzo is Zimbabwean Feminist Activist. She is currently the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) a women's pressure group that since its establishment in 1990 is committed to empowering women to make informed choices and decisions.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
The archives of the regional southern Africa office of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has some precious photographs that offer a record of women's life experiences in the year 2003. In its own way, each image shows the very different ways women across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region endure a world in which poverty has increasingly determined the extent to which women are able to make choices. In one of the pictures four women in their late 20s and early 30s sit side by side, enjoying a moment of sisterhood in the African sunshine.

A shared experience connects them. They are all determined and gallant activists in the movement of women living with HIV and AIDS, agitating for their rights. Hope glows from their faces. Hope of an imminent victory in a struggle that seeks to set women free from all forms of oppression and injustice. But no amount of creative artistry could have enabled the photographer's lens to capture the story behind Angeline Chiwetani's glasses.

In 1999, the working mother of two young boys learned to be tough. She had hit the hardest of times. Her husband, HIV positive and without treatment, needed constant looking-after. Chiwetani drafted a letter of resignation and handed it over to her employers.

Moving away from a job that provided the family its sole income put Chiwetani's life at its darkest ever. For 12 long and lonely months she was miserable and knew little else but pain, anger and disappointment.

Women and the stigma of AIDS

"My marriage had problems. My husband used to go beyond our bedroom and have sexual relations with other women. I told my family lets talk and adjust the situation and they said I was trying to rule the roost, "says Chiwetani.

"No one came to see my husband except for my relatives and friends. My in laws, his brother and sisters labelled me a city woman. They meant I could go and sleep with any guy, " says Chiwetani, pointing to a kind of isolation that women caring for HIV positive husbands have repeatedly voiced.

Thousands of HIV positive women across the sub-Saharan African region daily suffer the nasty effects of gossip, ugly name-calling and being labelled everything from whore to witches. Their collective experiences show the extent to which addressing AIDS related stigma remains a critical priority for any actions aimed at cutting back the impacts of the epidemic on African women. Eliminating the segregation, isolation, emotional and psychological violence HIV positive women like Chiwetani and their families bear.

Women's resistance to AIDS gains momentum

Chiwetani has become a leader, organizing support and care for HIV positive women and their families and communities. The last four years have seen Chiwetani develop strength and resilience. Her boys, now aged 12 and seven, are at school and their grades have been encouraging. She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Network for Zimbabwe Positive Women (NZPW+), a not for profit group that supports more than 3000 HIV positive women across the country in various ways.

NZPW+ is supported by UNIFEM, through a special fund aimed at empowering HIV positive women to put pressure on public institutions to safeguard the rights of especially women living with HIV and AIDS.

"We need to get what we need to save ourselves", she says, running off her fingers some of the resources that HIV positive and other women need to secure empowerment and autonomy, "Education is key, so are jobs, access to treatments for the illnesses HIV positive women face and above all social and legal support".

She says a critical factor in providing support is to create a public and private environment that enables HIV positive women to live with their status. " I cannot emphasis how important it is to have stigma reduction programmes. This allows us to come out in the open and talk to some one who can comfort you and help you get over the stress, someone to share with. I opened up because when I got into this situation someone opened to me. I think I would be dead. There is no one to talk to you can get stressed up and have problems."

AIDS and Women's failing rights

Women and girls account for 58 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe that are deeply affected by the pandemic. In some instances girls aged 15 to 19 years are four to seven times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys within the same age group.

This reflects the low and oppressed status of women in Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe's women have paper rights enshrined in the National Gender Policy, a fracture exists between policy and lived reality. The AIDS pandemic has not only uncovered the very deeply ingrained sexual abuse, gender violence and impoverishment that especially poor black women experience, but it has also served to reinforce and provide new avenues of discriminating women and showing that a critical gap between proclamations and real change remains.

Sexist attitudes and sinister patriarchal practices that privilege men have kept women and poor, rural women in particular, in positions of deep disadvantage. Not only has this made women more vulnerable to HIV infection, but also forced women and girls into working as unpaid, unrecognized home nurses carrying the burden of community based care programmes.

The phenomenal sacrifice women of the sub-region make in nursing the AIDS affected, without appropriate training, equipment, food, water, firewood, money, medications or recognition, is a stunning sign of service. Yet it is also a form of exploitation that reveals the marginalisation of women and girls in societies that accept that women are unequal citizens who should be made to accept labour: washing soiled bedding and clothing, whipping wounds and sores, burying the dead without coffins, caring without knowledge or information or protection has led to a trauma so deep it is difficult to see recovery of families and communities from the burden.

AIDS, Women and the Family

As her husband's health deteriorated Chiwetani sent messages to his family requesting support. The harsh advice that came back was: "Go and stay in the village, near a grave," she says. The family did not want, in the event of her husband's death, the responsibility of moving his body from the city to the village where the funeral was bound to be.

On July 23 2000, while the rest of Zimbabwe was consumed by the headiness surrounding the constitutional reform debate and parliamentary elections, Chiwetani's husband died. "It happened in our house. When I sent a message to his brother the words that came back were "Tell her I am waiting for my wife to finish the laundry", she says.

In a short space of time Chiwetani had gone from wife to widow. No sooner had her husband's coffin been lowered into the grave that new difficulties emerged. A tug-of-war surrounding property believed to belong to the deceased put further strain on already mangled family relations.

HIV and AIDS? The Experience of Widows

"When I went home for the funeral, there was a lot of talk about how I had killed my husband and made him sick", explains Chiwetani. "My husband had amended his Will and reversed certain sections. The Will had been stamped by his lawyers. The family was not very happy that the children and I had been left with everything.”

Bitter inheritance disputes, that often leave widows and their children dispossessed and may even result in fatalities, have been the subject of extensive research by regional feminist networks such as the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, WLSA. The network, along with women's rights groups across the continent, has lobbied for legislative reforms that protect the property and inheritance rights of widows and children. AIDS Activists such as Chiwetani have recently added their weight behind the demands for just inheritance laws and legal practice before both civil and traditional courts.

"Zimbabwe's inheritance laws are very clear: widows and children are the rightful heirs to the deceased's estate, where there is a Will, its contents are meant to be respected,” says Arnold Tsunga, Co-ordinator of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). "Yet more than half of all inheritance disputes have women and girls as complainants. This is partly due to the prejudice women and children encounter through sexist legal practice and customary law that favours men as heirs."

Chiwetani couldn't agree more. "Wills are very important. They prevent people from grabbing property from widows at the time of need,” she says about the strategy that worked for her and her children. "Now that I have my life and our network is growing, my main worry is treatment for the women on whose behalf I have dedicated my life to.”

Women and AIDS Treatment Campaigns

With more than half of the people living with HIV and AIDS being women, treatment campaigns can no longer afford to sideline women's demands for appropriate care through service centres that meet the very specific needs of women.

As the UN's World Health Organisation rolls out its "3 by 5" campaign, which aims to have 3 million people on treatment by 2005, the momentum steadily gathering in the region to demand treatments will need to ensure that a significant number of the beneficiaries of treatment are women and girls living with the HIV.

"Treatment is something to do at all costs," says Jephias Mudondo, director of the Family AIDS Counselling Trust (FACT). "People are dying unnecessarily. The solution is political commitment. Commitment with action.”

"Women are more affected in a lot of ways. Even in infection by older men. Married men go out and get infected. A married woman is the most vulnerable person. When positive they carry all the burden. Poverty does not have access to treatment in the country. We have a programme of volunteers taking place. Of 600 volunteers only 10 are men. The rest are women. Community care impacts on them. When they get ill who do they get support from?"

AIDS and the Ballot Box

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination. Any other form of oppression would have caused massive outrage. The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.

On the eve of the National Conference on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe that ran June 15 to 18 women's rights activists showed their collective indignation at the deeply rooted gender and human rights violations that have allowed the full horror of this mammoth plague to emerge. Not providing early, affordable and accessible treatment, along with the resources so necessary for the disease's elimination has proved to be extremely costly and damaging.

As Zimbabwe moves closer to Parliamentary Elections planned for March 2005, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women, AIDS is steadily graining momentum as an issue of governance and democracy. Political will to tackle gender segregation in the context of AIDS will determine which way the millions of women whose lives have been rocked by the disease will cross their voting cards. After all, women command 52% of the vote.

* Isabella Matambanadzo is Zimbabwean Feminist Activist. She is currently the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) a women's pressure group that since its establishment in 1990 is committed to empowering women to make informed choices and decisions.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

8. “It is not a gift to offer women, it is their right”

Dr Morissanda Kouyate

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22731

I would first like to congratulate the African Union for the adoption of this very important legal instrument which fills a gap cruelly felt by women and all those who fight to help women secure their rights so that they can fulfil their duties. For, we cannot forget that no one can fully discharge their duties if their rights are ridiculed or categorically ignored.

It is curious to note that important international instruments, which were enthusiastically adopted, have vanished from collective memory simply because the States that adopted them wilfully forget to ratify them. We therefore need to all mobilize to prevent this from happening with the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

By adopting this Protocol, the African Union made significant progress in the protection of women and recognition of their rights. Now we must translate this political will into concrete action through its ratification.

The Protocol addressed several sensitive issues such as violence against women in general and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in particular, early marriages, divorce, involvement of women in socio-political decision making … all of which are deeply anchored in African societies and which governments are not doing enough to tackle at a national level.

The Protocol is a social, political, economic and legal instrument which protects African women and which by its title supplants pathetic political discourse for the benefit of women. The ratification of the Protocol is an opportunity for member states of the African Union to prove that they want to implement their political will to restore women’s rights. Those who do not ratify it will not convince anyone by making a few ministerial appointments to an insignificant number of women.

One cannot hide behind economic growth if the majority of the population, that is, women, cannot benefit from such growth because they are subject to discrimination and violence; moreover, is it really possible to have socio-economic growth if women are still confronted by these scourges?

The Protocol is not a gift to offer to women, it is their right. The member states of the African Union must therefore demonstrate their will to restore these rights by the ratification, and particularly the effective application, of this instrument.

In the Africa of wars and poverty, there is place for the rights of women. I am convinced that women who enjoy all their rights would play a pacifying role on our continent.

Girls that are uncircumcised, integrated, educated, married at a legal age, free from violence, empowered, and who participate fully in decision making at all levels: these are some of the results expected by the implementation of the Protocol. Which state would not want that for its citizens?

To ratify and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa is therefore a priority for our states and all their citizens. Let everyone make a commitment to this goal!

* Dr Morissanda Kouyate is Director of Operations Of the Inter African Committee Secretary General CPTAFE (morissanda@yahoo.fr)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.

Je voudrais d’abord saluer l’Union Africaine pour l’adoption de cet important instrument juridique qui comble un déficit cruellement ressenti par les femmes et par toutes celles et tous ceux qui luttent pour aider les femmes africaines à conquérir tous leurs droits afin qu’elles remplissent tous leurs devoirs. Car ne l’oublions pas, nul ne peut convenablement accomplir ses devoirs si ses droits sont bafoués ou catégoriquement ignorés.
“It is not a gift to offer women, it is their right”
Dr Morissanda Kouyate
I would first like to congratulate the African Union for the adoption of this very important legal instrument which makes good a deficit cruelly felt by women and all those women and men who fight to help women secure their rights so that they can fulfil their duties.
So as not to forget, no one can fully discharge their duties if their rights are ridiculed or categorically ignored. It is bizarre and intolerable to note that important international instruments adopted with enthusiasm, vanish from collective memory simply because the States that had adopted them wilfully forget to ratify them. We need therefore to mobilize ourselves to remove that phenomenon from the historical gain, which is the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
By adopting this Protocol the African Union made significant progress in the protection of women and recognition of their rights. This political will must now be translated into concrete action by its ratification.
The Protocol addressed several sensitive issues such as violence against women in general and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in particular, early marriages, divorce, involvement of women in decision making in the socio- political settings … all of which are deeply anchored in African societies and which governments are not trying enough to tackle in their national plans.
The Protocol is a social, political, economic and legal instrument which protects African women and which by its title supplants the pathetic political discussions for the benefit of women. The ratification of the Protocol is an opportunity for member states of the African Union that they want to implement their political will to restore the rights of women. Those who will not have ratified it will not convince anyone by making a few ministerial appointments to an insignificant number of women.
It is also an exercise in futility to hide behind economic growth if the majority of the population, that is, women, cannot benefit from such growth due to the suffering occasioned by violence; if anything, is it really possible to have socio-economic growth if women are still faced with these curses? The Protocol is not a gift to offer to women, it is their right. The African states, members of the African Union, need to show their will to restore these rights by the ratification and especially the effective application of this instrument.
In the Africa of wars and poverty, there is place for the rights of women. I am convinced that women who enjoy all their rights would play the role of peacekeepers and stop the wars in our continent. Uncircumcised girls that are integrated, schooled and educated, legitimately married at the right age, free from violence, empowered, participating fully in decision making at all levels: these are some of the results expected by the implementation of the Protocol. Which country would not want that for its citizens? To ratify and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa is therefore a priority for our states and all their citizens. All should join in.

* Dr Morissanda Kouyate is Director of Operations Of the Inter African Committee Secretary General CPTAFE (morissanda@yahoo.fr <mailto:morissanda@yahoo.fr>)
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Pourquoi est-il important et urgent pour les États africains de ratifier le Protocole à la charte africaine des droits de l’Homme et des peuples relatif aux droits des femmes en Afrique.
Par Dr Morissanda KOUYATE, Directeur des Opérations du Comité Inter-Africain
Secrétaire Général de CPTAFE (morissanda@yahoo.fr)

Je voudrais d’abord saluer l’Union Africaine pour l’adoption de cet important instrument juridique qui comble un déficit cruellement ressenti par les femmes et par toutes celles et tous ceux qui luttent pour aider les femmes africaines à conquérir tous leurs droits afin qu’elles remplissent tous leurs devoirs. Car ne l’oublions pas, nul ne peut convenablement accomplir ses devoirs si ses droits sont bafoués ou catégoriquement ignorés.

Il est curieux et intolérable de constater que d’importants instruments internationaux adoptés avec enthousiasme, disparaissent de la mémoire collective parce que tout simplement les États qui les ont adoptés, oublient volontairement de les ratifier. Nous devons donc tous, nous mobiliser pour éviter ce phénomène à l’acquis historique qu’est le protocole à la charte africaine des droits de l’Homme et des peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.

En adoptant ce protocole, l’Union Africaine a pris une sérieuse avance dans la protection des femmes et la reconnaissance de leurs droits. Maintenant il faut traduire cette volonté politique en acte concret par sa ratification.

Le protocole traite de questions sensibles telles que les violences faites aux femmes en général et les Mutilations Génitales Féminines en particulier, les mariages précoces, le divorce, l’implication des femmes dans la prise de décisions socio-politiques… toutes choses qui sont ancrées dans les tréfonds des sociétés africaines et auxquelles les gouvernants osent difficilement s’attaquer au plan national.

Ce protocole est un instrument social, politique, économique et juridique qui protège les femmes africaines et qui, à ce titre, supplante tous les discours politiques pathétiques en faveur des femmes. La ratification du protocole est une occasion pour les états membres de l’Union Africaine de prouver qu’ils veulent mettre en œuvre leur volonté politique de restituer aux femmes tous leurs droits. Ceux qui ne l’auront pas fait, ne convaincront personne par l’octroi de quelques postes ministériels à un nombre insignifiant de femmes.

Il ne sert à rien aussi de courir derrière les fruits de la croissance économique si la majorité de la population, c’est-à-dire les femmes, ne peuvent même en bénéficier parce qu’occupées à subir la discrimination et la violence ; d’ailleurs, est-il vraiment possible de créer la croissance socio-économique avec des femmes confrontées à ces fléaux ?

Ce protocole n’est pas un cadeau à offrir aux femmes, c’est leurs droits. Les états africains membres de l’Union Africaine doivent donc poursuivre leur volonté de restituer ces droits par la ratification et surtout par l’application effective de cet instrument.

Dans l’Afrique des guerres et de la pauvreté, il y a de la place pour les droits femmes ; je suis convaincu que les femmes jouissant de tous leurs droits joueront un rôle d’extincteur et de pacificateur de notre continent.

Des filles non mutilées, intègres, scolarisées et éduquées, mariées légalement à l’âge requis, indemnes de violences, épanouies, participant activement à la prise de décisions à tous les niveaux, voilà quelques résultats attendus de la mise en œuvre de ce protocole. Quel État ne le souhaiterait pas pour ses citoyennes ?

Ratifier et mettre en œuvre le protocole à la charte des droits de l’Homme et des peuples relatif aux droits des femmes en Afrique est donc une priorité pour nos États et tous leurs citoyens. Que chacun s’y mette.

9a: MEETING THE GENDER PARITY TARGET OF 2005: A FAR CRY FOR AFRICA

Andiwo Obondoh

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22733

MEETING THE GENDER PARITY TARGET OF 2005: A FAR CRY FOR AFRICA

1 The Planning Process for EFA in Africa
As African leaders and heads of state plan to join hands in the forthcoming AU summit in Addis next month, three years after appending their signatures to the Dakar Framework for action (EFA Protocol, 2000), civil society’s perception on progress made on EFA by African countries has mixed. While it is true that there has been a growth in the number of countries with ‘credible’ plans, this is far below the numbers expected and it is unlikely that the new target date of December, 2004 for participatory plans will be achieved in many countries. While countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and others have achieved their plans, there is some confusion about whether these are separate EFA plans, chapters of national development plans, sector review reports, MDG action plans or sections of their Poverty Reduction Strategy papers. A number of countries who claimed to have developed plans prior to the Dakar Forum have not reported any revision of their strategies in a participatory way – Nigeria, The Gambia, Zambia, Ghana, fall into these categories. Therefore, while the UNESCO progress report of 2001 suggested only 7 countries have this work to do in 2002/03, a deeper analysis of the state of ‘plans’ reveals the problem is significantly deeper than one would otherwise gather. Significant political commitment is required to put participatory and credible plans in place which will enable countries to strategically tackle the challenges which the Dakar Framework presents. Key among them is gender parity in education and promotion of girls education in Africa.

2 Making EFA goals and MDGs Indivisible
Barely six months after Dakar, the world’s leaders gathered at the Millennium Summit and committed themselves to eight over-arching goals - the Millennium Development Goals. Two of these correspond directly to Dakar goals. However, in the process of implementing Dakar, a new trend of emphasis on the MDGs has become the basis for action. Countries are focusing on access to primary schooling and girls' enrollment as the key indices of success. The international community, led by the World Bank, has aggressively adopted these two goals as the central basis for their support. The only two resource packages in sight since Dakar – The World Bank Fast Track initiative and the Commonwealth Education Fund – focus their emphasis on these two goals. However EFA goals and MDGs should not be treated separately. It is upon African governments to look at both EFA goals and MDGs broadly as indivisible frameworks whose attainment relies on each and similar strategies. This will help in building synergy, harmony and concerted efforts towards accelerating gender parity not as alone ranging goal but as part of the wider targets for education development in Africa.

3 Achieving basic education as a Constitutional right
All the documents, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and CEDAW, as well as Jomtien and Dakar Frameworks reaffirm the understanding that education is a basic human right. However, an analysis of most constitutions shows that this has not been translated effectively into national constitutions. With the exceptions of possibly Ghana, Kenya (Children's Act 2001 and the draft Constitution) and Malawi, there is no constitutional guarantee to the right of every individual citizen to education – even elementary or basic education. African leaders and governments should and must focus on this, as one of the priority areas. As long as basic education remain ‘a goodwill service’ devoid of constitutional provisions as a fundamental right girls access to education will continue to suffer a great deal. To unlock the potential of all boys and girls basic must be made not only accessible and compulsory but more importantly a constitutional entitlement. So all government policy documents should bestow elementary education as a fundamental right, allocate substantial funds to elementary education and reiterate commitment to close all gender and social equity gaps in accessing quality basic education for all citizens of the continent.

4 Financing of Education for Girls
Overall, financing to education continues to fall far short of the sums required to ensure access as set out in the Dakar Framework. Only very few countries like the Gambia and Senegal come close to the necessary budgetary allocations for achieving EFA – currently recommended at 26%. Most countries average between 5% and 10% with education often fairly low down on the list of national priorities – typically fifth or lower. Unless significant resources are mobilized into education, the MDG & EFA targets, particularly those on gender and girls education will remain a pipe dream. Governments must focus on national level resource mobilization to support EFA plans and initiate special funding mechanisms and sponsorship schemes to support girls education. This calls for affirmative action in allocation of resources to girls and boys from disadvantaged communities.

5 Participation of Girls in Education
Yes, more and more children are definitely coming to school and yes the teachers are also present, but one is left wondering how many girls in particular will actually complete the primary cycle with requisite skills. The tragedy is not that there is no demand for education or that people do not recognize the value of education in the overall growth and development of their children. Rather most of those children who do enroll are pushed from one grade to the next, thanks to the no-detention policy, that is if they are not pushed out of the system all together. School attendance varies across countries in the continent. Attendance rates too vary across different age groups - they decline as we move towards higher ages. This is more marked for girls in rural areas, where they decline by more than 50% for 10-17 year olds.

The situation is particularly bleak in rural areas, in urban slums and for children of communities who are at the bottom of the social ladder. The situation in these areas is fairly predictable - extreme poverty, low investment in primary education, low adult literacy, dysfunctional or poorly functioning schools, low learning achievements and high drop out rates. There are wide discrepancies between the percentage of boys and girls completing primary school. Moreover, for girls, socially disadvantaged groups, and those in rural areas, completion rates are lower. Equally disturbing is the distribution of out of school children by social group and by location, this is much more with rural girls belonging to disadvantaged groups. The real problem is that as we go down the social and economic pyramid, access and quality issues become far more pronounced. The vast numbers of the very poor in rural and urban Africa have to rely on government schools of different types. It is indeed the best time to make a decisive shift in the way education is envisioned - the demand side has never looked more promising. The overwhelming evidence emanating from studies done in the last 10 years clearly demonstrates that there is a tremendous demand for education - across the board and among all social groups. Wherever the government has ensured a well-functioning school within reach, enrolment has been high. The challenge for governments is to make public education relevant and of high quality so that parents and poor communities can reclaim their lost confidence in public and community education.

6 Quality, Diversity and Life Skills
Children who complete middle or even high school are left with almost no opportunity for continuing their education or acquiring employment or self-employment skills that could enable them to eke out a livelihood. Worse, there is no comprehensive policy to address the educational and training needs of educated youth. Basic, ordinary middle and high school education is not enough, particularly for girls. Given the changing scenario in the continent - especially with respect to the educational aspirations of our people - we have to seriously think about and plan for post-basic and or post-secondary education and training opportunities. Equally, linking education to empowerment (self-esteem/self-confidence), survival (for employment/self-employment), awareness of social, political and community issues and rights as citizens can yield handsome results for a continent that is experiencing unprecedented social as well as economic transformation.

Parents across Africa want to send their children - girls and boys - to school, but are at a loss in a situation where schools are dysfunctional. Also, teachers are not made accountable for learning outcomes of children, especially in the primary and middle-level schools where there are no agreed and child friendly evaluation benchmarks or systems.

7 Some conclusions and way forward
Access without quality is meaningless and quality is the essence of equity. There is little point in pushing children into schools if we cannot simultaneously gear the system to ensure children acquire reading, writing and cognitive skills appropriate for each level of education. This necessitates a multi-pronged strategy of bringing about changes in curriculum, classroom transactions, teacher training, classroom environment, teacher attitudes and school-community linkages. Working on any one of these without addressing related issues does not lead to significant improvement in the learning outcomes of children.

Creating multiple exit points, from post-primary onwards whereby children can access a wide range of technical/vocational skills (including agriculture, public/maternal health, nursing, social development, civic education and so on) is significant. Careful context specific planning has to be based on rigorous exploration of employment or self-employment opportunities and the resource base in the region. This is essential if we are to link education and training to life skills, governance, productive work and self consciousness.

While affirmative action for girls by way of reservations and special provisions does have a role to play, it is more than evident that in the last 20 years people from socially deprived communities (except for a tiny section) have remained at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. different educational institutions ensure that their literacy, numeracy, cognitive and critical thinking abilities remain poor. They enter adolescence and adulthood with little hope and are quickly sucked into a battle for survival that leaves little room for self-development. This reinforces prevalent ambivalence about appropriateness of formal education beyond the elementary level. Africa cannot hope to make a breakthrough unless the entire chain that binds education is addressed in totality. Piecemeal approaches have not worked in the past and are unlikely to do so in the future. This calls therefore for new approaches and comprehensive and broader sectoral reforms not only in education but in politics, economics and social development regimes.

Andiwo Obondoh works with ANCEFA - Africa Network Campaign on Education for All.

Note: the views expressed here are those of the author (collated from different papers) and not necessarily of ANCEFA since this paper has not been subjected to debate within the ANCEFA Network.

9b. The reality…and the paperwork

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22722

War and violence, destitution, disease, poverty and discrimination – it is often African women who carry the burden of Africa’s economic, social and political crisis. In July 2003 a piece of paper with a preamble and 29 articles was passed by the African Union that was hailed as major progress in the struggle for the rights of women on the continent. But what exactly is the reality facing African women? And how does the paperwork begin to address the realities? PAMBAZUKA NEWS looks at ten areas effecting women’s rights and what the protocol says about them.

1. Women and War

A submission by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security for the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, notes that despite the work women do at the grassroots level to organize for peace, the majority of their voices go unheard during formal processes. These include: peace negotiations, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), constitution-creation, elections, reconstruction, rehabilitation, truth and reconciliation, and establishing a judicial system.

Cultures of violence and discrimination against women and girls that exist prior to conflict are exacerbated during conflict, the UN Secretary General's Report on Women, Peace and Security noted in 2003. Women and children are disproportionately targeted in contemporary armed conflicts and constitute the majority of all victims.

Women and children also constitute the majority of the world's refugees and internally displaced persons. During conflict, women and girls are vulnerable to all forms of violence, in particular sexual violence and exploitation, including torture, rape, mass rape, forced pregnancy, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and trafficking, the report stated.

What the protocol says:

* Women refugees must be accorded the full protection and benefits guaranteed under international refugee law.

* States parties are required to "reduce military expenditure significantly in favour of spending on social development in general and the promotion of women in particular."

* Every woman is guaranteed the right to peace.

* Participation of women in processes for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation must be ensured.

Source and more information:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ngo/ngopub/NoWomenNoPeace.pdf
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/sgreport.pdf
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

2. Violence against women

According to the Women in the World Atlas 2003, one third of women and girls have been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in their lifetimes by a member of their family. And according to the World Health Organisation, between 12% and 25% of women around the world have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives. The WHO has even estimated that violence is the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 15 and 44.

The situation is no different in many parts of Africa. In a survey by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness Program, 70% of the men and women interviewed said they knew neighbours who beat their wives. In South Africa, it has been estimated that a woman is raped every 83 seconds, while in Zimbabwe, domestic violence accounts for more that 60 % of murder cases that go through the Harare High Court.

What the protocol says:

* It calls for education to end harmful practices and stereotypes that negatively impact on women.

* States will have to introduce measures to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women.

* Budgetary and other resources must be made available to prevent violence against women.

Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

3. Economic indicators

Globalisation has had some benefits for African women with higher education and access to resources, but for poor African women it has often meant a sharpening of insecurities. On the ground control and ownership of land is often in the control of men, despite the major contribution that women make to agriculture and food security. In Tanzania, for example, women constitute 80 per cent of agricultural labour resource and produce 60 percent of food requirements.

Apart from land, women are also hamstrung in their economic activity through a lack of access to resources such as credit and education. When it comes to management and decision-making, women are also under-represented. Women receive no monetary compensation for participation in domestic chores like child care, housework and collection of wood and water.

What the protocol says:

* Women will be guaranteed the freedom to choose their occupation.
* States will have to adopt measures to promote equality of access to employment; promote the right to equal remuneration for jobs of equal value for women and men; ensure transparency in recruitment, promotion and dismissal of women and punish sexual harassment in the workplace.

Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

4. Human rights

Human rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Many women face barriers to enjoyment of their human rights because of race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability or socio-economic class.

Some countries still have laws that perpetuate discrimination with regards personal status, marital status, and violence against women. These include Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco.

Customary laws and practices facilitate harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early childhood marriages, forced marriages, widowhood, inheritance, slavery and trafficking in women, child custody and maintenance, and burial laws. In many African countries, women are still regarded as second class citizens, minors and /or property of their husbands.

What the protocol says:

* It aims to highlight the human rights of women in Africa and promote the principles of equality, peace, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy.

* It covers issues including employment, education, voting rights, nationality laws, rights in marriage and divorce, health care, reproductive rights, and equality before the law.

* States parties will have to adopt legislative, institutional and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

* Protection must be provided to elderly women.

* Any woman whose rights have been violated will be entitled to remedy to be determined by competent judicial, administrative, legislative or any other competent authority provided for by law.

Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

5. Sexual and reproductive rights

More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation. Doctors in Cote d'Ivoire estimate that 25 percent of infertility cases in Ivorian women is caused by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), while FGM is thought to affect over 40 % of women in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, early marriage and having children before being ready for parenthood is responsible for the deaths of one million infants and an estimated 70,000 adolescent mothers each year in developing countries, according to the State of the World's Mothers report. In many cases young women are forced into marriage.

In Mali, where only six percent of women use birth control one in 10 mothers dies in childbirth, and one in eight infants dies before reaching the first birthday. Fewer than five percent of women use modern contraception in Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone. While many countries in Africa have restrictive abortion laws, four million unsafe abortions occur each year in Africa and more than 40% of the world's deaths due to unsafe abortions occur on the continent.

What the protocol says:

* States will be required to prohibit and condemn female genital mutilation.
* Women and men must have equal rights in relation to marriage.
* The Protocol obligates states parties to guarantee to women adequate and paid pre- and post-natal maternity leave.
* The reproductive rights of women must be protected through access to abortion in certain circumstances.

Source and more information: http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/index.asp
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1879.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3139120.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

6. Health

Low cost improvements in health care would save thousands of the women and girls who die each year due to pregnancy and child birth complications, and a range of other preventable diseases. But improvements in medical knowledge is not the only criteria for improving women's health as often poor health is caused by the infringement of rights through social, cultural or political factors.

Death of infants under five and maternal mortality rates remain very high in African countries. Only 15 countries have below 70 deaths per 1000 live birth (1996) while their under-five Mortality Rate range between 46 and 110. Higher infant mortality rates and deaths of children under five often arise from poverty, poor nutrition and health conditions, having the first baby at an early age, and poor health of the pregnant woman.

The majority of Africans can expect to live no longer than 48 by 2005. Life expectancy of Africans has dropped by 15 years within the past two decades due to AIDS, war and poverty. In some countries life expectancy is already below 40, with women and children suffering the most as a result of the decline. The average of 48 compares with the average of 74.9 years for men and 81.2 years for women in European countries.

What the protocol says:

* States parties are required to respect, protect and promote the right to health of women, including sexual and reproductive.
* It says women have the right to be informed on one's health status and on the health status of one's partner; and the right to have family planning education.

Source and more information:
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1814609.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

7. HIV/AIDS

In sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. Infection rates in young African women are far higher than in young men. If these rates of infection continue, women will soon become the majority of the global total of people infected.
According to Save the Children, women accounted for 40% of all new HIV infection in 2002, and for nearly 40% of all AIDS related deaths that same year, while throughout sub-Saharan Africa, women account for nearly 60% of all HIV-positive persons. Poor women are becoming even less economically secure as a result of AIDS, often deprived of rights to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate health services. In rural areas, AIDS has caused the collapse of coping systems that for centuries have helped women to feed their families during times of drought and famine.

What the protocol says:

* It will guarantee the right to protection against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

Source and more information
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/womensday/default.asp
http://www.savethechildren.org/health/hiv_aids/statistics.asp
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

8. Education

International development efforts are leaving hundreds of millions of girls and women uneducated and unable to contribute to positive change for themselves, their children, or their communities, a Unicef report says. The report said that without accelerated action to get more girls into school, global goals to reduce poverty and improve the human condition would not be reached.

Unicef noted that illiteracy rates are still far higher among women than men, and at least 9 million more girls than boys are left out of school every year in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of girls left out of school each year has risen from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.

What the protocol says:

* States will be required to guarantee equal opportunity and access to women in the sphere of education and training.

Source and more information:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/sowc04_16165.html
http://www.unfpa.org/africa/demographic.htm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

9. Human trafficking

Four million women and girls are trafficked annually, says the United Nations, while according to Unicef an estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year.

A Unicef report, Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, in Africa and based on information from 53 African countries, provides an analysis of the patterns, root causes, and existing national and regional policy responses. It says women and children are either sexually exploited, used as labour or their organs are harvested. A strong determinant in the vulnerability of women are the patterns of oppression, discrimination, social and cultural prejudices, and the prevalence of gender violence.

What the protocol says:

* Trafficking in women will be condemned and perpetrators prosecuted.

Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html; http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40730
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

10. Participation in government

Worldwide, the number of women represented in national parliaments comes in at just over 15 percent and figures indicate that in recent years sub-Saharan Africa has caught up with and equalled this average.

Although Africa registers as one of the poorest regions in the world, women's representation in parliament is now higher than in many wealthier countries, noted Unifem in its Progress of the World's Women 2002 report.

Between 2000 and 2002, elections were held in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with increases in women parliamentarians in 14 of them.

The protocol:

* There is an obligation on states to promote the participation of women in governance.

Source and more information:
http://www.learningpartnership.org/facts/leadership.phtml
http://www.afrol.com/articles/12204
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658
War and violence, destitution, disease, poverty and discrimination – it is often African women who carry the burden of Africa’s economic, social and political crisis. In July 2003 a piece of paper with a preamble and 29 articles was passed by the African Union that was hailed as major progress in the struggle for the rights of women on the continent. But what exactly is the reality facing African women? And how does the paperwork begin to address the realities? PAMBAZUKA NEWS looks at ten areas effecting women’s rights and what the protocol says about them.

1. Women and War

A submission by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security for the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, notes that despite the work women do at the grassroots level to organize for peace, the majority of their voices go unheard during formal processes. These include: peace negotiations, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), constitution-creation, elections, reconstruction, rehabilitation, truth and reconciliation, and establishing a judicial system.

Cultures of violence and discrimination against women and girls that exist prior to conflict are exacerbated during conflict, the UN Secretary General's Report on Women, Peace and Security noted in 2003. Women and children are disproportionately targeted in contemporary armed conflicts and constitute the majority of all victims.

Women and children also constitute the majority of the world's refugees and internally displaced persons. During conflict, women and girls are vulnerable to all forms of violence, in particular sexual violence and exploitation, including torture, rape, mass rape, forced pregnancy, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and trafficking, the report stated.

What the protocol says:

* Women refugees must be accorded the full protection and benefits guaranteed under international refugee law.

* States parties are required to "reduce military expenditure significantly in favour of spending on social development in general and the promotion of women in particular."

* Every woman is guaranteed the right to peace.

* Participation of women in processes for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation must be ensured.

Source and more information:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ngo/ngopub/NoWomenNoPeace.pdf
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/sgreport.pdf
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658
2. Violence against women
According to the Women in the World Atlas 2003, one third of women and girls have been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in their lifetimes by a member of their family. And according to the World Health Organisation, between 12% and 25% of women around the world have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives. The WHO has even estimated that violence is the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 15 and 44.
The situation is no different in many parts of Africa. In a survey by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness Program, 70% of the men and women interviewed said they knew neighbours who beat their wives. In South Africa, it has been estimated that a woman is raped every 83 seconds, while in Zimbabwe, domestic violence accounts for more that 60 % of murder cases that go through the Harare High Court.

What the protocol says:

* It calls for education to end harmful practices and stereotypes that negatively impact on women.

* States will have to introduce measures to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women.

* Budgetary and other resources must be made available to prevent violence against women.

Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

3. Economic indicators

Globalisation has had some benefits for African women with higher education and access to resources, but for poor African women it has often meant a sharpening of insecurities. On the ground control and ownership of land is often in the control of men, despite the major contribution that women make to agriculture and food security. In Tanzania, for example, women constitute 80 per cent of agricultural labour resource and produce 60 percent of food requirements.

Apart from land, women are also hamstrung in their economic activity through a lack of access to resources such as credit and education. When it comes to management and decision-making, women are also under-represented. Women receive no monetary compensation for participation in domestic chores like child care, housework and collection of wood and water.

What the protocol says:

* Women will be guaranteed the freedom to choose their occupation.
* States will have to adopt measures to promote equality of access to employment; promote the right to equal remuneration for jobs of equal value for women and men; ensure transparency in recruitment, promotion and dismissal of women and punish sexual harassment in the workplace.

Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

4. Human rights

Human rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Many women face barriers to enjoyment of their human rights because of race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability or socio-economic class.

Some countries still have laws that perpetuate discrimination with regards personal status, marital status, and violence against women. These include Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco.

Customary laws and practices facilitate harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early childhood marriages, forced marriages, widowhood, inheritance, slavery and trafficking in women, child custody and maintenance, and burial laws. In many African countries, women are still regarded as second class citizens, minors and /or property of their husbands.

What the protocol says:

* It aims to highlight the human rights of women in Africa and promote the principles of equality, peace, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy.

* It covers issues including employment, education, voting rights, nationality laws, rights in marriage and divorce, health care, reproductive rights, and equality before the law.

* States parties will have to adopt legislative, institutional and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

* Protection must be provided to elderly women.

* Any woman whose rights have been violated will be entitled to remedy to be determined by competent judicial, administrative, legislative or any other competent authority provided for by law.


Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

5. Sexual and reproductive rights

More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation. Doctors in Cote d'Ivoire estimate that 25 percent of infertility cases in Ivorian women is caused by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), while FGM is thought to affect over 40 % of women in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, early marriage and having children before being ready for parenthood is responsible for the deaths of one million infants and an estimated 70,000 adolescent mothers each year in developing countries, according to the State of the World's Mothers report. In many cases young women are forced into marriage.

In Mali, where only six percent of women use birth control one in 10 mothers dies in childbirth, and one in eight infants dies before reaching the first birthday. Fewer than five percent of women use modern contraception in Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone. While many countries in Africa have restrictive abortion laws, four million unsafe abortions occur each year in Africa and more than 40% of the world's deaths due to unsafe abortions occur on the continent.

What the protocol says:

* States will be required to prohibit and condemn female genital mutilation.
* Women and men must have equal rights in relation to marriage.
* The Protocol obligates states parties to guarantee to women adequate and paid pre- and post-natal maternity leave.
* The reproductive rights of women must be protected through access to abortion in certain circumstances.

Source and more information: http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/index.asp
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1879.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3139120.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

6. Health
Low cost improvements in health care would save thousands of the women and girls who die each year due to pregnancy and child birth complications, and a range of other preventable diseases. But improvements in medical knowledge is not the only criteria for improving women's health as often poor health is caused by the infringement of rights through social, cultural or political factors.
Death of infants under five and maternal mortality rates remain very high in African countries. Only 15 countries have below 70 deaths per 1000 live birth (1996) while their under-five Mortality Rate range between 46 and 110. Higher infant mortality rates and deaths of children under five often arise from poverty, poor nutrition and health conditions, having the first baby at an early age, and poor health of the pregnant woman.
The majority of Africans can expect to live no longer than 48 by 2005. Life expectancy of Africans has dropped by 15 years within the past two decades due to AIDS, war and poverty. In some countries life expectancy is already below 40, with women and children suffering the most as a result of the decline. The average of 48 compares with the average of 74.9 years for men and 81.2 years for women in European countries.

What the protocol says:

* States parties are required to respect, protect and promote the right to health of women, including sexual and reproductive.
* It says women have the right to be informed on one's health status and on the health status of one's partner; and the right to have family planning education.

Source and more information:
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1814609.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

7. HIV/AIDS
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. Infection rates in young African women are far higher than in young men. If these rates of infection continue, women will soon become the majority of the global total of people infected.
According to Save the Children, women accounted for 40% of all new HIV infection in 2002, and for nearly 40% of all AIDS related deaths that same year, while throughout sub-Saharan Africa, women account for nearly 60% of all HIV-positive persons. Poor women are becoming even less economically secure as a result of AIDS, often deprived of rights to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate health services. In rural areas, AIDS has caused the collapse of coping systems that for centuries have helped women to feed their families during times of drought and famine.

What the protocol says:

* It will guarantee the right to protection against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

Source and more information
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/womensday/default.asp
http://www.savethechildren.org/health/hiv_aids/statistics.asp
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

8. Education

International development efforts are leaving hundreds of millions of girls and women uneducated and unable to contribute to positive change for themselves, their children, or their communities, a Unicef report says. The report said that without accelerated action to get more girls into school, global goals to reduce poverty and improve the human condition would not be reached.

Unicef noted that illiteracy rates are still far higher among women than men, and at least 9 million more girls than boys are left out of school every year in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of girls left out of school each year has risen from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.

What the protocol says:

* States will be required to guarantee equal opportunity and access to women in the sphere of education and training.

Source and more information:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/sowc04_16165.html
http://www.unfpa.org/africa/demographic.htm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

9. Human trafficking

Four million women and girls are trafficked annually, says the United Nations, while according to Unicef an estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year.

A Unicef report, Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, in Africa and based on information from 53 African countries, provides an analysis of the patterns, root causes, and existing national and regional policy responses. It says women and children are either sexually exploited, used as labour or their organs are harvested. A strong determinant in the vulnerability of women are the patterns of oppression, discrimination, social and cultural prejudices, and the prevalence of gender violence.

What the protocol says:

* Trafficking in women will be condemned and perpetrators prosecuted.

Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html; http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40730
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

10. Participation in government

Worldwide, the number of women represented in national parliaments comes in at just over 15 percent and figures indicate that in recent years sub-Saharan Africa has caught up with and equalled this average.

Although Africa registers as one of the poorest regions in the world, women's representation in parliament is now higher than in many wealthier countries, noted Unifem in its Progress of the World's Women 2002 report.

Between 2000 and 2002, elections were held in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with increases in women parliamentarians in 14 of them.

The protocol:

* There is an obligation on states to promote the participation of women in governance.

Source and more information:
http://www.learningpartnership.org/facts/leadership.phtml
http://www.afrol.com/articles/12204
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA900424658

Statistics on gender in Africa, links to interesting articles, useful web sites and resources on women\\\'s rights

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/22720

Petition on the Ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

To African Union Heads of State

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/22736

Your Excellencies:


Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

We the undersigned write to you regarding the ratification of the Protocol on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa by member states of the African Union and urge your Excellencies to ensure the fast tracking of its ratification by your respective governments by the next Heads of States Summit in July 2004.

As you will recall, the Protocol was adopted in July 2003 during the Second Ordinary Session of the Heads of States held in Maputo. Its adoption was celebrated by African women, women's and human rights organizations in Africa and the diaspora as a major step towards finally securing a legal and rights framework for the protection and advancement of the human rights of African women.

However, one month before its first anniversary only 29 of the AU's 53 member states have signed the Protocol and only one (Comoros) has ratified it. This record undermines the stated intention of African governments to protect and promote the rights of all their peoples.

Many women and their families experience social, cultural and economic rights abuses and political discrimination on a daily basis. Physical violence, vulnerability to life-threatening diseases most notably HIV/AIDS, poor educational opportunities and legal barriers around rights to property combine to keep women in Africa as second class citizens as well as inhibiting their ability to contribute fully to the prosperity of the continent.

Our call for the urgent ratification of the Protocol by all countries of the African Union deserves your serious consideration. Ratification will send a clear signal that women and men can and should enjoy equal rights and responsibilities. This enjoyment, in turn, will realise benefits to the whole of the continent.

We in civil society share the dream of the Heads of States that Africa's social, economic and political well-being rests on enabling women's resourcefulness at this time. We trust therefore that you will recognize the urgency of the situation and will facilitate the speedy ratification of the Protocol thereby completing the good work that your Excellencies began in Maputo last year.

Yours Sincerely

African Women's Development & Communication Network (FEMNET)
Credo for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, Rotimi Sankore - Coordinator
Equality Now, Faiza Jama Mohamed - Africa Regional Director
Fahamu, Firoze Manji - Director
Oxfam GB, Irungu Houghton - Pan-African Policy Adviser
and 200 others

Mali near to ratification

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/22729

The Council of Ministers of Mali has approved last Wednesday June 9th the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa which was adopted in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 2003. The ratification has been submitted to the National Assembly to be adopted. Mali will then have to deposit its instrument of ratification at the African Union. This is according to a press release from Women in Law and Development in Africa.
--- Press Release --- Press Release --- Press Release ---

Mali will soon deposit its instrument of ratification of the Protocol to the ACHPR on the Rights of Women in Africa
Lomé, Togo, June 22, 2004. The Council of Ministers of Mali has approved last Wednesday June 9th the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa which was adopted in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 2003. The ratification has been submitted to the National Assembly to be adopted. Mali will then have to deposit its instrument of ratification at the African Union.
Congratulations to men and women, to human right’s NGOs and networks and to the Malian network of Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique for the hard work they have done in achieving this result.
Up to now, only one country has ratified the Protocol, the Comoros. Let us remind you that the Protocol will come into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15th) instrument of ratification. Until June 2nd, thirty (30) countries, out of which twelve (12) from West Africa, signed the Protocol. The process is slow, too slow.
We encourage women’s organisations and human rights’ NGOs and networks to continue lobbying and follow-up upon the ratification in their own country. For sure, we know that other countries are aware of the importance of the protocol for African women. We are confident that other countries will soon ratify like the Comoros did and Mali will. But be alert to keep on the pressure.
Don’t hesitate to let us know about your action.

Yours sincerely,


Women in Law and Development in Africa/ Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) West Africa sub-regional office
Wildaf@cafe.tg
www.wildaf-ao.org/eng

To keep up to date on signatures and ratification, go to www.africa-union.org and check Treaties, conventions and Protocols etc. under Official Documents section.

Sign the petition in English and French on Pambazuka (www.pambazuka.org) website to increase the speed of ratification:

Petition : www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1&lang=en

Namibian parliament tables motion on women's rights

2004-06-24

http://allafrica.com/stories/200406110392.html

The ratification of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, is one of three strong motions that was tabled by both ruling and opposition parties in Parliament on Tuesday.

Ratifying the protocol: safeguarding the rights of women in Mali

2004-06-24

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/22728

“The relevance and the urgency of ratifying the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa no longer needs to be proven. Women in Africa continue to suffer all forms of violence and are circumcised daily in Mali. This raises the question of whether women are human beings. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a health issue. How many homes are broken up because couples do not know how to talk about a problem linked to their sexuality? Have we made the link between maternal and infant mortality, and FGM in Africa? Thousands of women and girls suffer each day as a result of this traditional practice. FGM remains a health problem, a problem of sexual and reproductive rights of women and their male sexual partners. It has untold economic, medical and social consequences. We urge African Union heads of states to turn their attention to the need for the urgent and immediate ratification of the Protocol at the Summit. Counting on your sensitivity to women’s empowerment and well being, we hope that you will ratify the Protocol on Women’s rights in Africa.”

La ratification urgente du Protocole à la Charte africaine relatif aux droits des femmes: un sauvegarde des droits des femmes au Mali

“Voici ma petite contribution sur les raisons de la necessité d'une ratification immediate La pertinence et l'urgence de ratifier le protocole additif à la charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples relatifs aux droits de la femme en Afrique n'est plus à démontrer. Les femmes continuent à subir toutes les formes de violence en Afrique et sont excisées chaque jour au Mamli. On doit se demander si la femme est elle un être humain. Les MGF se posent en terme de santé, combien de ménages sont disloqués suite au silence d'un couple qui ne sait comment parler d'un problème lié à la sexualité ? Avons nous établi le rapport entre le taux de mortalité maternelle et néonatale et les mutilations génitales féminines en Afrique ? Bref, des milliers de femmes et de filles souffrent tous les jours à cause d'une pratique soutenue par la tradition. Les MGF demeurent un problème de santé, de droit sexuel et reproductif pour la femme, partenaire sexuel de l'homme. les conséquences économiques, médicales et sociales restent inestimables. Nous exhortons les chefs d'état à se pencher sur la necessité d'une ratification immédiate par les états membres de l'union Africaine lors du sommet. Espérant sur votre sensibilité à l'égard des femmes pour les épanouissement et le bien, nous pouvons compter sur vous pour une ratification du protocole additionnel sur les droits des femmes en Afrique.”

- Kadidia Sidibe Aoudou Maiga, Chair of AMSOPT (l'Association Malienne pour le suivi et l'Orientation des Pratiques Traditionnelles), Mali (amsopt@datatech.toolnet.org)

Fahamu