Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
women's rights
Government as a driver of migration
Angella Nabwowe
2011-07-27, Issue 541
cc S TUganda ‘is seeking to come up with a law that will make it impossible for sexual minorities, or even those who know about them, to live within the country. Consequently this is going to lead to an increase in the number of people seeking asylum based on their sexual orientation,’ writes Angella Nabwowe.
Confronting female genital mutilation
The role of youth and ICTs in changing Africa
Marie-Hélène Mottin-Sylla and Joëlle Palmieri
2011-07-21, Issue 540
'Confronting Female Genital Mutilation: The Role of Youth and ICTs in Changing Africa' by Marie-Hélène Mottin-Sylla and Joëlle Palmieri is a new title from Pambazuka Press. For 25 years campaigners from within and outside Africa have worked on eradicating female genital mutilation. This fascinating short book reports succinctly but in depth on an innovative research and action project among girls and boys in francophone West Africa that explored whether young people’s use of information and communication technology could contribute to the abandonment of female genital mutilation.
SOAWR Youth Essay Competition: Finalist essays
‘Why is the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa important to you?’
Brenda Kombo
2011-06-16, Issue 535
cc M MA month ago Solidarity for African Women’s Rights coalition (SOAWR) invited young people to reflect on the contributions women and girls can make to development issues, by writing an essay on the importance of Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. The four finalists – Nonyelum Umeasiegbu, Laurence Lemogo, Itodo Samuel Anthony and Nelly Nguegan – will attend this month’s AU summit in Malabo on the theme of 'Youth empowerment for sustainable development’. The six best essays are available in the English and French editions of Pambazuka News.
Heeding the Protocol
Nonyelum Umeasiegbu
2011-06-16, Issue 535
cc water.org‘It is taking Africa forever to commence the implementation and domestication of the protocol on national levels and in various countries. If the charter had been implemented even a year after its declaration, I would not have lost my friend to childbirth,’ writes Nonyelum Umeasiegbu, one of the four finalists in SOAWR's essay competition.
The Protocol on the Rights of Women: my perspective
Itodo Samuel Anthony
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc B SThe importance of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa lies in its potential to change negative power relations and address the impoverishment of women in Africa, writes Itodo Samuel Anthony, a finalist in the SOAWR essay competition.
Safeguarding rights and empowering youth
Eunice Kilonzo
2011-06-16, Issue 535
cc A PAs part of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition’s essay competition ('Why is the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa important to you?'), Eunice Kilonzo discusses the strengths and limitations of the protocol.
The gods of Africa are not asleep after all
Cameron Duodu
2011-05-19, Issue 530
cc D PWith the IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) Dominique Strauss-Kahn in hot water over accusations of sexual assault in a New York hotel, Cameron Duodu revisits the effects of the fund’s structural adjustment programme in his home country of Ghana.
Saluting the revolutionary women of Egypt on International Women’s Day
Horace Campbell
2011-03-10, Issue 520
cc HuguesHonouring the struggles of women all over the world against patriarchy and oppression in the week of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Horace Campbell focuses on the instrumental role of key women activists in the Egyptian protests.
Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire: What impact on women?
Massan d’Almeida
2011-03-03, Issue 519
cc UN PhotoCôte d’Ivoire has been in a political impasse since the declaration of contested results of a second round of presidential elections held in November 2010. Since both candidates claimed victory and have been sworn in, the country has two presidents and two governments. In order to understand the impact of this situation on women and women’s rights organisations, AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) spoke with two women’s rights defenders, Mata Coulibaly, president of SOS EXCLUSION and Honorine Sadia Vehi Toure, president of Génération femmes du troisième millénaire (GFM3), as well as with an Ivorian politician who prefers to remain anonymous and to whom we have given the pseudonym of Sophie.
Egypt: Women of the revolution
Fatma Naib
2011-02-24, Issue 518
cc H HEgyptian women describe the spirit of Tahrir and their hope that the equality they found there will live on.
Looking back, looking forward
Five years of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
Mary Wandia
Oxfam Pan Africa Programme
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc World BankDespite the advancement of women’s rights legal frameworks and discourse in Africa, there’s been little substantial change in the situation of African women, writes Mary Wandia.
SOAWR: Lessons we have learned
Faiza Jama Mohamed
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc ISN S WFive years after the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa came into force, the campaign to ensure that it is implemented and enforced across the continent continues. Faiza Jama Mohamed looks at SOAWR’s strategy for future advocacy, in light of the experience it has gained.
African Women’s Decade: Strategic opportunities
Monica Ighorodje
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc J HWith the African Union declaring the period 2010–20 to be the African Women’s Decade (AWD), Monica Ighorodje considers what the decade means for women’s rights activists and civil society organisations across Africa.
Advocating for women’s rights in Africa: Any new insights?
Norah Matovu Winyi
2010-11-24, Issue 507
cc D PLooking back on the background to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, Norah Matovu Winyi discusses the efforts of the Solidarity for Women’s Rights in Africa Coalition (SOAWR Coalition) to popularise the protocol and push for its widespread ratification, with particular reference to Uganda and Kenya.
Learning lessons from Kenya’s ratification process
Regina Mwanza
2010-11-24, Issue 507
cc H CKenya’s engagement with the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa was anything but smooth, but valuable lessons have been learnt by those supporting it, writes Regina Mwanza.
State reporting key to implementation of women’s protocol
Karen Stefiszyn
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc AfronieWithout reporting by states that have ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, how can we assess what progress they've made in implementing it, asks Karen Stefiszyn.
Reporting rights, protecting rights
Elize Delport
2010-11-24, Issue 507
cc AfronieNew reporting guidelines herald an exciting new phase of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa – providing a framework for ongoing and constructive dialogue. Elize Delport explains.
Assessing women’s rights in Nigeria
Omoyemen Odigie-Emmanuel
2010-11-24, Issue 507
cc M V CThe Nigerian government needs to show commitment to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa by passing relevant laws and allocating funds to women’s rights, argues Omoyemen Odigie-Emmanuel.
Why Ethiopia should ratify the Maputo Protocol
Fana Hagos Berhane
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc GigiEthiopia is one of the few countries that have not ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Fana Hagos Berhane discusses why it ought to.
The promise of the women’s rights protocol
What is right with Africa
L. Amede Obiora and Crystal Whalen
2010-11-25, Issue 507
© SOAWRCommemorating the fifth anniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women’s Rights in Africa, L. Amede Obiora and Crystal Whalen stress that ‘the noteworthy lesson is that there is a need to balance campaigning for ratification with a corresponding focus on impactful strategies for domestication and implementation’.
Sudanese women struggle to ratify Maputo Protocol
Sidiga Washi
2010-11-24, Issue 507
cc D PReflecting on progress towards the African Union (AU) Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women in Africa, Sidiga Washi outlines the steps and provisions which need to be made to move forward the ratification of the protocol in Sudan.
The fallacy of human rights at the African Commission
Wendy Isaack
2010-11-22, Issue 506
By denying observer statues to the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is endorsing ‘the flagrant impunity’ enjoyed in most African states for violations of the rights of lesbian and gay people, argues Wendy Isaack.
Tanzania’s first female speaker: Celebrating gender equality?
Salma Maoulidi
2010-11-18, Issue 505
cc Julien HarneisHas Tanzania’s parliament elected Anna Makinda as its first female speaker because she’s the best person for the job, or because it thinks she’s less likely to demand accountability than her predecessor, asks Salma Maoulidi.
Strides in gender parity in peril
Tanzania’s general elections 2010
Salma Maoulidi
2010-10-28, Issue 502
cc L KSalma Maoulidi looks at the future of Tanzania’s 50-50 Campaign as the country prepares for a general election. The campaign is meant to bring gender parity in parliament. Maoulidi argues the process is stalling as female politicians get caught up in a game where there is no women’s agenda and where women and women’s issues are largely absent from political debates.
African Women Writing Resistance
Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, Pauline Dongala, Omotayo Jolaosho and Anne Serafin
2010-09-23, Issue 497
The following article is an extract from 'African Women Writing Resistance', which Pambazuka Press will be publishing in January 2011. For customers in Africa and Europe, the book is available at a special pre-publication price of £13.00 when ordering from our website, with orders to be fulfilled in January (customers in North America and India should please order from the University of Wisconsin Press website).
'Our bodies are shaking now'
Rape follows earthquake in Haiti
Beverly Bell
2010-04-01, Issue 476
cc US ArmyHaiti’s earthquake has left women and children in the country highly vulnerable to rape and violence. Beverly Bell gives an account of this vulnerability and of the relentless work of KOFAVIV (Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim), a grassroots anti-violence group in Haiti, to prevent and protect women and children against rape and violence. Bell depicts the hostile environment that KOFAVIV is working in – one in which police and aid and relief groups are either less than willing to help or have limited resources. Furthermore, Bell points out that KOFAVIV members' advocacy has ‘come at a price’: Their daughters, their families and they are being personally targeted for their work.
Global: Are instruments of human rights law incompatible with Islam?
2009-07-17, Issue 442
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and subsequent instruments of international human rights law and international humanitarian law play a vital role in providing protection for refugees and IDPs. Yet the claim to universality has been d...
The world financial meltdown: What now for African women?
Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc hdptcarAs the global economic crisis takes its toll on Africa’s fiscal revenues and household incomes, Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi fear that the continent’s achievements in human rights and development may be reversed, worsening the condition of women already struggling against an ‘entrenched patriarchy’. Despite embracing commitments to gender equity on paper, Ervin and Muriithi say many countries lack the funding and resources to implement policies and legislation. Programmes focused on women, largely funded by multi-lateral donors, are likely to decline as aid dries up the authors warn, while at a domestic level many households will prioritise the education and welfare of sons over daughters, with ‘long-term consequences for overall development’. Calling for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, Ervin and Muriithi suggest that ‘investment in women's livelihoods, particularly in African economies,’ should be ‘a central focus of governments’ economic recovery policies’.
It's time to secure the rights of women in Africa
Solidarity for African Women's Rights
2009-06-25, Issue 439
This special issue of Pambazuka complements the work of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition in advocating the ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Through a series of five articles, it highlights key human rights issues currently affecting women on the continent, putting them within the context of the debates happening at the 13th African Union Summit. The theme for the summit, held from 24 June to 3 July 2009, is ‘Investing in agriculture for economic growth and development’.
The special issue puts the women’s agenda within the theme of the summit, as well as highlighting other violations against women that need to be addressed by African leaders. It is a call on all African Union member states to ratify, domesticate and implement the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women as it provides a framework for the protection of women in Africa.
Global downturn: What now for African women?
Women's rights and the world financial meltdown
Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi
A call to action: Implement the Africa Women's Rights Protocol
Norah Matovu Winyi
Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU Summit
Lyn Ossome
Safeguarding women’s rights will boost food security
Mary Wandia
Denied the right to a dignified life:
The forgotten women of Africa
Anushka Sehmi
A call to action: Implement the Africa Women's Rights Protocol
Norah Matovu Winyi
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Juan FalqueIn the five years since the adoption of the Protocol to the Africa Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, some 26 countries have ratified Africa's first regional human rights instrument. But with 27 countries yet to do so, the challenge remains to see each African nation commit to fully upholding women's rights. Moral arguments aside, implementing women's rights offers clear social and developmental benefits for all, argues Norah Matovu Winyi, benefits which will only be realised through sustained political will.