The coalition of the campaign “Africa for women’s rights : ratify and respect !” issues a call to states that have failed to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa
11 July 2009 – Today marks the sixth anniversary of the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Adopted in 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, the Protocol entered into force in 2005 and has now been ratified by the majority of African states which have thus committed themselves to “ensur(ing) that the rights of women are promoted, realised and protected”. However, 26 States have yet to ratify the Protocol** .
This Protocol, like the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Convention) which has been ratified by almost all African States, provides a legal framework of reference for ensuring respect for women’s human rights: elimination of discrimination and harmful practices; right to life and to physical integrity; equality in the domain of the family and civil rights; access to justice; right to participate in the political process; protection in armed conflicts; economic rights and social protection; right to health and food security, etc.
Convinced that the fight against discrimination and violence against women requires changes to the the legal framework, on 8 March this year over one hundred organisations launched the campaign “Africa for Women’s Rights: Ratify and Respect” calling on African States to ratify the Maputo Protocol and the other women’s rights protection instruments and to take all necessary measures to guarantee respect of their provisions.
Initiated by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in cooperation with five African regional organisations*** , this campaign has the support of patrons including the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Literature Prize Laureates Wole Soyinka and Nadine Gordimer, the artists Angélique Kidjo, Tiken Jah Fakoly and Youssou N’Dour, as well as Ms. Soyata Maiga, Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
All the organisations involved in the campaign, and the campaign’s patrons, call on the Presidents of the 26 states that have not yet done so, to seize the occasion of this anniversary to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa and thus affirm their commitments to respecting the rights of women.
** Algeria, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Saharawi Arabic Democratic Republic, Sao Tome et Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda
*** Femmes Africa Solidarités (FAS), Women in Law in South Africa (WLSA), African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) et Women’s aid Collective (WACOL)
