WUNRN
MAPUTO PROTOCOL - PROTOCOL TO THE
AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA
Website Includes Country
Ratification Map.
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Guide to Using the Protocol on the
Rights of Women in Africa for Legal Action
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11 YEARS OF THE MAPUTO PROTOCOL:
AFRICAN WOMEN'S PROGRESS & CHALLENGES
By Faiza J. Mohamed - July 11, 2014
Eleven years ago, African
states made formidable progress by jointly adopting the Protocol to the African
Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, also known as the Maputo Protocol -
regarded as one of the most progressive women’s and human rights instruments in
the world. Its signing, ratification and implementation would have a momentous
effect on the rights of women on a continent that has historically seen women
bear the multiple brunt of poverty, exclusion and experience wars and civil
unrests. In the journey towards its adoption, the courageous women and men of
this continent did not see this as a reason to shy away but rather felt that
this was precisely why such a legal instrument was needed – as a way to hold
governments to account on the rights of women and girls.
Eleven
years ago, African states made formidable progress by jointly adopting the
Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, also known as
the Maputo Protocol - regarded as one of the most progressive women’s and human
rights instruments in the world. Its signing, ratification and implementation
would have a momentous effect on the rights of women on a continent that has
historically seen women bear the multiple brunt of poverty, exclusion and
experience wars and civil unrests. In the journey towards its adoption, the
courageous women and men of this continent did not see this as a reason to shy
away but rather felt that this was precisely why such a legal instrument was
needed – as a way to hold governments to account on the rights of women and
girls.
They saw it
as a bridge to protecting women during armed conflict, ensuring a right to the
education of women and girls all over the continent, as a step towards the
right to participate in making decisions that regard them politically and
socially, social and welfare rights for all including widows, the aged, the
physically handicapped and distressed, just to name a few. To achieve this
progress meant that different African states had to work towards the
elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, do away with harmful
practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage that were
limiting the potential of women and girls in the name of tradition and give
women full access to information and justice in matters regarding reproductive
rights but also in marriage, separation, divorce and annulment of marriage
among others – not as a secondary but as an equal stakeholder. These have been
sensitive issues traditionally as well as religiously, and getting there was
going to be an uphill task.
Adopting a
legal instrument is one thing, but ratifying or rather endorsing it officially
is an additional process that required the same tireless women and men of the
continent who believe in its potential to pick up their advocacy tools and
convince different states to join in the campaign. After years of imperialism,
concepts such as “rights” are at times misunderstood and either viewed with
suspicion as “Western Concepts” - particularly by sensational African
politicians. In order to break ground, campaigners needed to recruit women’s
organizations that understood the context – organizations that work with women
facing the challenges aforementioned on access to justice, who see the
challenges faced by those who go through harmful traditional practices and who
interact with those denied the right to make decisions that pertain to their
own bodies and lives. There are now 44 organizations across 24 African
countries that have joined the campaign to make sure that their governments
ratify the Maputo Protocol and then implement and domesticate (make part of
their own laws) the Articles within the instrument. This homegrown approach has
borne fruits over the past 11 years.
Yet
challenges continue to require that tools are not stored away and each
celebration is swiftly followed by a strategy to combat the next challenge.
Take for instance the country of Sudan. Despite being one of the original State
Parties that contributed to the drafting of the Maputo Protocol and one of the
first African countries to sign the Protocol in 2008, Sudan has stalled in
ratifying the essential women’s rights instrument. As such to a certain extent,
regionally, Sudan has remained unaccountable for the continuous and significant
abuses being subjected onto the country’s women and girls. Although Sudan’s
initial step in signing the Protocol was a positive reflection of the country’s
commitment towards advancing and ensuring women’s rights and protection,
efforts to domesticate and implement such measures have stalled significantly
attributable to internal conflict, subsequent separation from South Sudan in
2011, and continued political conflict between the Army of Sudan and Sudan
Revolutionary Front (SRF). Any efforts to develop and advance human rights
measures have slowed significantly. While CSOs, NGOs, and private actors
continue work to ensure that such development continues, it is ultimately the
responsibility of the State to ratify and implement such measures. Without laws
and means of accountability in place to ensure their protection and equality,
women on the continent remain particularly vulnerable to grave abuses.
Ratifying and incorporating the Protocol into domestic laws is a step towards
making sure that issues disproportionately affecting women would be addressed
and at the same time meet international standards of fundamental human rights.
Certain
countries have exhibited commendable efforts in measures to safeguard and
advance the rights of women and girls. Algeria, Kenya, Senegal and Zimbabwe are
among thirteen countries who have reformed their laws over the past ten years
in a bid to address gender discrimination, particularly those that concern
passing on nationality to their spouses and children. Twenty out of twenty-nine
countries that traditionally practiced FGM have specific laws against the
procedure across the continent. It is through an African led coalition that the
United Nation declared a ban on the practice of FGM in 2012 (Resolution
67/146), giving a much-needed boost to the campaign globally. Governments are
adopting maternal healthcare practices across the continent with maternal
mortality declining by nearly half since 1990 – but the aim is to achieve
universal healthcare for all by 2015 (Millennium Development Goals). Enrolment
of girls has seen considerable increment with gender gaps almost firmly closed
in all countries, and family planning is becoming a reality for women in rural
and urban areas. Women’s representation and participation in the labour market
and in politics is a reality in countries such as Rwanda with healthy quotas of
gender parity in others that promises sustainable change in coming years. Only
four countries – Botswana, Egypt, Eritrea and Tunisia have neither signed nor
ratified the instrument. Yet even those who have signed and ratified are a work
in progress in as far as implementation of the rights enshrined within the
Protocol is concerned. Harmful traditional practices such as FGM in countries
such Mali, Liberia and The Gambia continue, and governments here have not come
out strongly by establishing structures and measures to protect women and girls
by introducing a law. Nigeria’s dire security situation has been exposed in the
recent past where abductions of girls by the terrorist group Boko Haram
demonstrated that political battles continue to be fought over the bodies of
women. Civil unrest in Libya has undone years of progress and recently, where
activists such as recently slain Salwa Bughaighis are killed in broad daylight.
The Democratic Republic of Congo bears the shameful title of the world’s rape
capital, with rape being used as a warfare tool, in a country that abounds in
wealth ranging from fertile soils to numerous minerals that benefits only a
few, while the violence in Central African Republic has flourished unabated.
Within
their capacities, SOAWR coalition organization and others are working to ensure
that the Protocol remains on the agenda of policy makers and to urge all
African leaders to safeguard the rights of women through its ratification and
implementation. These organizations give visibility to both progress as well as
violations of the rights enshrined therein. There are organizations working
within the law systems to bring violations of rights to book, particularly for
women and girls with little or no access to justice. Others carry out research
in a bid to boost documentation of the dynamics that are taking place in
different countries from the eyes of those who experience it on a day to day.
By networking with each other, they have brought the articles of the Protocol
to life and both directly and indirectly are shaping policies that positively
impact not only on the lives of women, but on their countries. Even with States
where governments continue to show reluctance to ratify and implement the
articles of the Maputo Protocol, the wave of progress means that they are
forced to recognize the changes taking place in the region. This has sometimes
lead to an unpleasant backlash of repression, arrests and closure of
organizations, particularly in the field of human rights. Recent incidences
include the arrest of human’s rights defenders in Egypt and the closure of
Salmmah’s Recource Centre in Sudan.
2015 will
be a year of reckoning as the deadline for the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals expires, and examination of each country will reveal varying
disparities. It will also see the African Union dedicate the AU’s summit theme
to be "the Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development Towards African’s
Agenda 2063”. These are fantastic opportunities that cannot be missed. It will
be an opportune time for those who believe in the rights of the girls and women
of Africa to demonstrate that an instrument that works hard for its
constituents already exists and all we need to do is put it to work to see
progress, including the MDGs, become no longer a dream, but a reality.