The challenges of ratification: Highs and lows of gender activism
On the second anniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, Marren Akatsa-Bukachi reflects on the challenges faced in the past year.
It was an appealing sunny day in mid November 2005, Sarah Mukasa then of Akina Mama wa Afrika and I were geared for a higher and more important level of gender activism. I represented the Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative for Women (EASSI), and Sarah Akina Mama both members of the Coalition on Solidarity on African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) and were conducting a workshop in Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala Uganda.
We had co-organized the workshop to unpack the outcome of a previous workshop that was organized by SOAWR in conjunction with the African Union in September 2005 in Addis Ababa. The workshop was called to discuss domestication and implementation strategies of the Protocol. Sarah and I both energized, were eager to share the good news with a large constituency of Uganda civil society.
The Protocol was about to come into force on November 25th following the 15th ratification by Togo. The Protocol’s significance lies in the fact that it is the only regionally generated document specifically on the rights of African women and that relates to the context specific violations of African Women’s Human Rights. Coincidentally this date would coincide with the beginning of 16th Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. I felt elated. This was prophetic. To add to the “high,” Uganda was on the verge of ratification. This confidence was buoyed by the revelation by the government representative that the Protocol had passed through all the necessary stages and was only awaiting Cabinet approval. We were assured this would take place speedily before the matter of the General Elections, scheduled to take place in February 2006 would get in the way.
With reenergized spirits, we discussed strategies for domestication and ratification as if we already had won the prize. Little did we know that dark forces were lingering in the shadows. Even as we spoke, there was a double page spread in the local dailies vilifying the Protocol. The article was sponsored by the Catholic Bishops and was specifically speaking to Article 14 on Health and Reproductive Rights. The Article states inter alia, that “Protect the rights of reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus”.
‘The Protocol for Women’s Rights in Africa supports Abortion,” screamed one headline. “Catholic Bishops decry abortion”, shrieked another. It seemed our celebration was turning into battle. We had already identified the ratification platform as a basis for deeper advocacy for the passing of the stalled Domestic Relations Bill whose content was more or less reinforced by the Articles in the Protocol, when the Bishops came up with their bombshell. In an election year everyone with power to influence a significant voting constituency becomes a darling and the Bishops had stirred a hornet’s nest. In Uganda where almost 50% of the populations (read voters) are Catholics, this constituency cannot be ignored. The Protocol was placed into cold storage and stayed there to date.
Two years after coming into force, seven more countries have ratified the Protocol, bringing the total to twenty two, twenty four countries have signed but not ratified while seven have not signed at all.
Advocacy by SOAWR
SOAWR can be credited with contributing to the respectable level of achievement of almost 50 percent ratification by the fifty three African Union Member States.
Its strategy of using the African Union Summits of Heads of States as a lobby platform has elicited tremendous levels of success.
Since January 2005 members of the SOAWR Coalition have attended the African Union (AU) Summits to ensure that the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa remains on the agenda of policy makers and to urge all African leaders to safeguard the rights of women through ratification and implementation of the Protocol. Members have consistently produced policy-briefs, launched books and held press conferences during the Summits to keep the Protocol at the forefront of policy-makers’ concerns. Members have also directly met with at least 10-15 Ministers over the last six Summits. Since January 2005, SOAWR has used the opportunity of the Summits taking place in different countries to press on the host to either ratify or move to implementation.
The latest addition to the countries that have ratified the Protocol is Ghana, host of the last AU Summit that deposited its instruments of ratification in July 2007 almost two weeks after hosting the Summit. This is a testimony to SOAWR’s. tenacity and lobbying skills. This brings ratification countries to 22.
During the Summit, a team drawn from national coalitions and the steering committee met and committed to the following:-
1. Prepared and circulated to Ministers a short policy brief on the status of the Protocol and the implications of Continental Government proposal for women’s rights and gender equality
2. Participated in CSO pre-Summit activities planned with a view to raising visibility for women’s rights and gender equality issues and participating in the Grand Debate
3. Maintained relationships with key Government delegations
4. Co-convened with Ghanaian women’s coalition, a university based seminar on the Protocol.
Amongst other pre-summit activities carried out by SOAWR was the Public Forum which was titled “Is it possible to have a United States of Africa without Women?” and What form would be meaningful for African Women? The forum provided an opportunity for governments as well as African civil society to deliberate on the Grande debate on Continental Unity and also on issues of harmful traditional practices with special focus on the Trokozi practice in relation to the Protocol. Other activities included a Press Conference, SOAWR Planning and Evaluation Meeting and Direct Advocacy with the Permanent Representatives Council of the different African Countries in the African Union (see Appendixes 1- 5).
I was among those privileged to lobby the foreign Ministers and their representatives at the Summit venue. We gave out red cards to those countries that had not signed the Protocol, yellow cards to those that had signed and not yet ratified and green cards to those that had signed and ratified. We lobbied actively amongst the delegates during tea time and any time they stepped outside the conference hall. We congratulated those that had ratified and exhorted those that needed to ratify or deposit instruments of ratification to do so. We were elated to hear that Liberia only needed to deposit the instruments and expected to see it amongst the group of green cards within two weeks of leaving Accra. To date we are still waiting. It is sad but true, what is on paper is not necessarily put in practice!
Our lobbying strategies were very interesting but also revealed at times that those sent to represent their governments at these meetings are not always up to par with regard to issues such as the Protocol. Many a time we were informed that the person dealing with this matter was left behind in the capital city and there was nothing they could do about it. I remember on one of the days when we stood outside the meeting hall, our body language must have given us away as one of the delegates asked pointedly, “whom are you waiting to pounce on next?” It elicited laughter but at the same time showed that our seriousness was visible to all. Our strategy was to demand that none “signatory countries sign up, signed up countries move to ratification as speedily as possible, the “ratifiers” domesticate and implement. We found to our surprise that there was a gap in information with quite a large number of delegates not quite aware of the Protocol but also a good number supportive and willing to take some action back in their own countries. I realized that there is an information gap here that needs to be plugged if SOAWR is to achieve 100 per cent ratification. Government officials in key ministries such as foreign affairs need to be sensitized on the Protocol.
In some countries it is considered a gender issue and embedded in the ministry of Gender or Women’s Affairs. The Coalition may need to design a program specifically targeting policy makers to make them aware of the Protocol and its benefits to the country and to women’s rights. It should not be seen as threatening existing rights but as scaling up these rights, particularly social and cultural rights. I say this because when I was on a visit to Ethiopia and enquired from one of our partners why Ethiopia has not ratified the Protocol, the response was that the Ethiopian Constitution is very gender sensitive and already touched on the very issues propounded in the Articles in the Protocol. None the less, women’s organizations are fighting patriarchy and gender based violence, amongst them female genital mutilation that would benefit from ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol. As for Eritrea, it is still at the red card stage and has not signed the Protocol. However, after years of lobbying by the National Union of Eritrean Women, the government outlawed FGM in May 2007.
Even as SOAWR Coalition continues to lobby for total and unreserved ratification, it does not miss an opportunity to make demands on the member states. Using the opportunity afforded by the AU Summit in Accra and the discourse around an African Union Government, SOAWR came up with the following demands:
Specifically, the African Heads of States and Government meeting in Accra should show commitment to continental unity by embracing the following:
• Incorporation of gender equality in the values underpinning the Proposal of United States of Africa
• Instituting and making public during the next Summit a performance audit of the Directorates of the African Union Commission in terms of the incorporation of gender concerns (2004-2007)
• Prioritization of the rights and entitlements of refugees and displaced populations, particularly women and girls.
• Prioritization of full citizenship status for women in terms of rights, particularly women who marry across nationalities and lose their rights.
• Guarantee to women the freedom to trade and work across states’ borders. Women small traders manage a high degree of non-formal cross border trade
• Conduct analysis into the gendered implications of macroeconomic policy with respect to the ‘convergence criteria’.
• Enable total factor mobility—the free movement of all factors of production (labour as well as capital)—by addressing questions of African citizenship, including African women’s equal citizenship rights and freedom of movement at the continental level.
• Embedding the principle of gender parity in the election and appointment of persons to the continental institutions.
• Ensuring that the principle of appointing 50% women commissioners at the African Union Commission continues to be honoured.
• Increasing the minimum threshold for women MPs elected to the African parliament to at least two per country
• Review all recommendations (in the continental government proposal) in light of deficiencies already noted by the African women’s movement with respect to ensuring the equal representation of African women at the Abu’s highest decision-making organs—for instance, the Commission’s Chair could also have a Deputy responsible for gender mainstreaming across her/his ‘Cabinet’ and all Commissioners responsible for programs and projects under the strategic focus areas should ensure that gender implications are taken into account in their elaboration and implementation;
• Publicly censuring countries that have yet to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of African Women.
• Honor their commitment to deliver on the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.
• Demonstrate greater commitment to the normative framework already established by the AU—particularly with respect to the promotion and protection of human rights (including women’s human rights), peace and security.
The debate on the Union Government is timely, but it will only be relevant in as far as it will recognize that the majority of the African people are women and girls; and that to win their confidence African Leaders need to seriously take up their concerns head on.
We came back full circle in Uganda on October 18th 2007; we were back in the same venue where we were in November 2005 once again with Akina Mama wa Afrika to again discuss the stalled ratification process in Uganda. This time the aim was to put in place a steering committee that over see different strategies to ensure ratification and implementation of the Protocol. The committee’s first task is to find out exactly where the protocol is stalled. Is it in the Attorney General’s Office or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? A video documentary made by Akina Mama to popularize the Protocol had one of the Christian Bishops proposing that the Protocol should be signed with reservations on Article 14 otherwise it will be a tough battle ahead..
Is this Uganda’s desire for her future?
* Marren Akatsa-Bukachi is the executive director of the Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for Advancement of Women (EASSI)
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org