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PAMBAZUKA NEWS 162: UNFINISHED BUSINESS - AFRICAN LEADERS MUST ACT NOW TO RATIFY THE PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
A weekly electronic forum for social justice in Africa
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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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CONTENTS: 1. Highlights from this issue, 2. Features, 3. Women & gender, 4. Advocacy & campaigns
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Highlights from this issue
Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: campaign edition
CONTENTS LIST
2004-06-24
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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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.
Features
1. Unfinished Business - African Leaders Must Act Now to ratify The Protocol on the Rights of Women
Faiza Jama Mohamed
2004-06-24
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
More...
2. A plea for ratification
Zeinab Kamil Ali
2004-06-24
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 uvre) , 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 uvre 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 uvre 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 uvre 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
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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
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'uvrer 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 surs, 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.
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4. African states: Equal to the task?
Hannah Forster
2004-06-24
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
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5. Time to take count of Africa's daughters
Gichinga Ndirangu
2004-06-24
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.
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6. Making governments accountable
Dr Sylvia Tamale
2004-06-24
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