Thank you for taking this initiative (Pambazuka News petition to the AU on the Protocol on the Rights of Women). It is one of the most critical elements in the future viability of all of Africa. Without the recognition of the rights of all especially women and children, Africa is relegating itself to the graveyard of civilization.

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A new study shows obesity rates are rising in poor and developing countries, particularly among women, marking a major departure from historical trends and long-held beliefs, Reuters reports. The joint U.S.-Brazilian study included data from 37 countries including Brazil, China and India. "In many poorer nations, obesity has become more prevalent than malnutrition," said Barry Popkin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina. "Worldwide, the burden of obesity increasingly rests on the poor and less educated, even in many developing nations we never thought of as having an obesity problem."

On 11 July 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, marking a significant step forward in promoting the rights of women within Africa. But almost a year after its adoption, only one member state of the AU, The Comoros, has signed and ratified the Protocol. Twenty-eight member states have signed but are yet to ratify it as at May 12, 2004. This calls for 14 more countries to ratify in order for it to come into force. Oxfam GB, Equality Now, FEMNET, CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and FAHAMU have started a campaign targeting 14 countries that have already signed with the aim of lobbying them to ratify. A petition has been drafted that will be presented to the AU Summit in July 2004. You can sign up at .

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognizes the importance of women’s rights through three main provisions. Article 18(3), covering the protection of the family, promises to ensure the elimination of all discrimination against women and also ensure protection of the rights of women. Article 2, the non-discrimination clause, provides that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter shall be enjoyed by all irrespective of race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status. And Article 3, the equal protection clause, states that every individual shall be equal before the law and shall be entitled to the equal protection of the law.

However, the above provisions are not adequate to address the rights of women. For example, while Article 18 prohibits discrimination against women, it does so only in the context of the family. In addition, explicit provisions guaranteeing the right of consent to marriage and equality of spouses during and after marriage are absent. These omissions are compounded by the fact that the Charter places emphasis on traditional African values and traditions without addressing concerns that many customary practices, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and wife inheritance, can be harmful or life threatening to women. By ignoring critical issues such as custom and marriage, the Charter inadequately defends women’s human rights.

The World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria in 1993 made advances to human rights theory and practice with respect to women's human rights. The Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna emphasized: “The human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of the universal human rights.”

It also emphasized that elimination of violence against women is a human-rights obligation upon states. This was the first attempt to address the marginalisation of women’s human rights from the work of mainstream human rights. Thus the slogan that emerged from Vienna: “Women's rights are human rights”. Following almost directly on from Vienna, it was imperative for the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to expose the specific inequalities that impact negatively on the lives of women and thereby acknowledge that “women’s rights as human rights must be respected and observed”.

Developing the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa:

Article 66 of the Charter that provides for the establishment of Protocols and Agreements to supplement its provisions gave impetus for the consideration and subsequent formulation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The process started with a meeting organised by Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) on the theme “The African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the Human Rights of Women in Africa” in March 1995 in Lome, Togo. The meeting called for the development of a Protocol to the Charter on Women’s Rights. The meeting also called on the ACHPR to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights in Africa. The Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) at its 31st Ordinary Session in June 1995, in Addis Ababa, mandated the ACHPR to elaborate a Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The first Draft was prepared by the experts group meeting organised by the ACHPR and the International Commission of Jurist (ICJ) in Nouakchott, Mauritania, April 1997. The experts comprising of members of the ACHPR, representatives of African NGOs and international observers prepared the first Draft Protocol that was submitted to the ACHPR during its 22nd Session held in October 1997 for consideration and comments. The draft was also circulated to NGOs for comments.

The 12th ICJ workshop on “Participation in the African Commission on Human and People's Rights”, October 30 to November 1, 1997, in The Gambia, provided the opportunity for NGOs to make input into the Draft Protocol and pass a resolution calling upon the ACHPR to ensure the completion of the Draft Protocol in time for presentation to the next session of the ACHPR.

The First Meeting of the Working Group on Women’s Rights that brought together members of the ACHPR, the ICJ, WiLDAF and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) was held in Banjul, The Gambia from 26-28 January 1998. The meeting amended the Draft Protocol and developed the terms of reference for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa.

During its 23rd Session held in April 1998, the ACHPR endorsed the appointment of the first Special Rapporteur on Women Rights in Africa with a mandate that included working towards the adoption of the Draft Protocol on Women’s Rights. The ACHPR forwarded the Draft Protocol to the OAU Secretariat in 1999. The Inter Africa Committee (IAC) and ACHPR met to merge the Draft Convention on Traditional Practices with the Draft Protocol in 2000, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The first OAU Government Experts Meeting on The Draft Protocol was held in November 2001, in Addis Baba, Ethiopia. The experts amended the Draft Protocol developed by the ACHPR and called on the OAU to schedule a second AU experts meeting in 2002 to consider the draft again before the hosting of an OAU ministerial meeting on the same. African women’s organisations participated in the meeting as observers. The OAU scheduled the second experts meeting and ministerial meeting two times in 2002 but had to postpone them due to lack of quorum. Thus the Draft was not presented for adoption by the inaugural Summit of the African Union (AU) held in Durban, South Africa in July 2002 and it seemed that there was little political will among African governments to move this process forward.

In January 2003, African women's organisations from across the continent met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at a meeting convened by Equality Now, FEMNET and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) to come up with strategies to lobby the AU and individual governments to schedule and attend the expert and ministerial meetings on the Draft Protocol. Represented at the meeting were ACDHRS, Akina Mama Wa Africa, the Association of Malian Women Lawyers (AJM), the Association of Senegalese lawyers (AJS), Equality Now, EWLA, Femmes Afrique Solidarite (FAS), FEMNET, WILDAF, and WRAPA. These organisations pooled comments in a collective mark-up to strengthen the document and bring it into line with international standards. Following the meeting they met with officials of the AU, including the then Acting Commissioner for Peace and Security, who was in charge of the Protocol, and urged him to call for the second experts and ministerial meetings on the Protocol in March 2003 in an effort to ensure that the Draft Protocol was adopted by the AU Summit in July 2003. The organisations further lobbied ministries of Justice and Gender at national level through their networks to confirm their participation to ensure the AU obtained the required quorum.

The Second AU Experts Meeting followed by the Ministerial Meeting on the Draft Protocol was held in March 2003, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meetings amended and adopted the Draft Protocol and recommended it for adoption by the Executive Council and Assembly of the AU. African women’s organisations attended the meetings as observers and lobbied the experts and ministers to strengthen the Draft Protocol to the level of regional and international human rights agreements on women.

The Second Ordinary Summit of the AU adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa on July 11 2003, in Maputo Mozambique. The Assembly appealed to all member states to sign and ratify the Protocol in order to ensure its speedy entry into force. The Protocol will enter into force after 15 countries have ratified it. The Protocol will complement the African Charter in ensuring the promotion and protection of the human rights of women in Africa.

Content and meaning for women in Africa

Mainstream international human rights standards are defined in relation to men's experience, and stated in terms of discrete violations of rights in the public realm whereas most violations of women’s human rights occur in private. The private/public dichotomy that is detrimental to women continues to exist. In most African countries, the same constitutional provisions that guarantee gender equality allow exceptions in the so-called “private law” areas of customary law, personal law and family law. Serious violations of women’s human rights such as violence against women and provisions that discriminate against them are found in that private sphere.

Human rights guarantees in the legally binding human rights conventions such as those to the right of life, to bodily integrity, and to be free from torture, cruel and degrading treatment, have not been interpreted to include such acts as domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation, forced sterilisation, forced childbirth, and numerous other forms in which violence against women and girls is manifested in Africa.

Provisions on women’s human rights in the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action have not involved a conceptual shift or effected structural changes needed to implement their resolutions. The Protocol primarily complements the African Charter and international human rights conventions by focussing on concrete actions and goals to grant women rights. It further domesticates CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the African context.

The Protocol is in three sections. The first section covers the rationale behind its elaboration, making reference to both regional and international commitments regarding women's human rights. The second section outlines the rights to be upheld by the Protocol. And the third and final section covers implementation by addressing the manner in which it is to be adopted and monitored, as well as the process through which it may be amended. The Protocol affirms four broad categories of rights: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; the rights to development and peace; and reproductive and sexual rights.

Status of Ratification

Almost a year after its adoption, only one member state of the AU, The Comoros, has signed and ratified it. Twenty-eight member states have signed but are yet to ratify it as at May 12, 2004. This calls for 14 more countries to ratify in order for it to come into force. Its entry into force is critical because it will commit governments to:

* Submit periodic reports to the ACHPR on legislative and other measures they have undertaken to ensure the full realization of rights recognized under the Protocol;
* Integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans and activities and ensure the overall well-being of women;
* Include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments fundamental principles of the Protocol and ensure their effective implementation;
* Eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women in Africa and promote equality between men and women.

Advocacy Needs and Initiatives

Given the time and effort necessary to persuade governments to adopt this Protocol compared with the desperate urgency to promote, protect and safeguard women's human rights in Africa, African civil society organisations have to campaign and lobby governments to sign and ratify the Protocol as soon as possible and in any event, as a gesture of commitment, before the next AU Summit to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 2004.

The Oxfam GB, Equality Now, FEMNET, CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and FAHAMU have started a campaign targeting 14 countries that have already signed with the aim of lobbying them to ratify. They have drafted a petition to be presented to the AU Summit in July 2004.

Kindly sign up at

To supplement their efforts you could as an individual or organisation:
* Contact relevant government officials in ministries of foreign affairs, women’s affairs, and justice and urge them to ratify the Protocol;
* Urge governments to be fully involved in the full realization of the human rights of women, if they have not done so;
* Encourage government officials to include the issue of the Protocol in contacts with other governments and to state their positions publicly in the media or other events;
* Inform and increase public awareness about the Protocol by putting women’s issues on the human rights agenda at various fora;
* Mobilize national and local support for the Protocol among academicians, parliamentarians, and the media;
* Work on creating a better and common understanding of issues as provided for in the Protocol;
* Support the organisation of local focal points on the Protocol to lobby and monitor government positions. The focal points will later be effective in the monitoring of implementation of the Protocol by governments.

Conclusion

The Protocol, once it enters into force, will usher in a new and significant era in the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Africa and end impunity for all forms of violations of the human rights of women in Africa. As Dr Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, ACHPR notes:

“The women of Africa who have suffered for long, their efforts at building our beloved continent have gone on for long without acknowledgement, and the men of Africa should be equally committed to the task. The urgent need to work towards the ratification and effective implementation of the Protocol urgently is a great challenge, yet a duty we all owe to posterity and to Africa.”

*Mary Wandia is the Advocacy Officer with The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) E-mail: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

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* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, Editors are also encouraged to make a donation - and to sign the online petition at

The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) is leading an initiative to establish a Code for the SADC region on Gender and HIV/AIDS. This Code is similar to the ‘Code on HIV/AIDS and Employment’ that was adopted by SADC 1997, but focuses specifically on the gendered dimensions of the AIDS epidemic. ARASA, in consultation with a number of human rights, gender and AIDS-services, has drawn up a draft Code entitled “Urgent Measures needed to Promote the Equality of Women and the Reduction of Women’s Risk of HIV infection”.

A lot of work and sensitisation needs to be done in many countries in southern Africa to ensure that they produce and implement national budgets that are gender sensitive. In its 1997 Declaration on Gender and Development, Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states made a commitment to ensure that gender is routinely taken into account in all sectors. National budgets world-wide are often assumed to affect everyone more or less equally, and have been instrumental in perpetrating and reproducing gender biases, yet they also hold the possibility for transforming existing gender inequalities.
Barbara Lopi and Priscilla Mng’anya

"Worse than dogs and pigs" is how Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described homosexuals almost a decade ago, when the gay community attempted to highlight widespread homophobia in the Southern African country. That statement, reported around the world, still reverberates in the country, casting a long shadow over the exercise of sexual freedom. Yet, in subtle ways, things are also changing.

As the clock ticks closer to the deadline for introducing a new constitution in Kenya, Atsango Chesoni – for one – is filled with anticipation at the coming change. The women’s rights activist and official at Bomas Katiba Watch says the country’s existing constitution discriminates against women, especially on the issue of property rights – and that change in this matter is long overdue. ("Katiba" is the Swahili word for constitution, while Bomas refers to the venue on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where constitutional negotiations took place.)

The Women's Health Project in the Wits School of Public Health invites interested professionals to apply for admission into its three-week residential Leadership Course in Gender and Reproductive Health, in Johannesburg. This course is for people who run health services, district managers responsible for quality of care, trainers of health workers and managers of service providers. The course is invaluable for people doing health systems research or involved in advocacy for health policy or programmes.

Under a makeshift tent in the Laine refugee camp in southern Guinea, Charlesetta Kollie, a Liberian refugee, buckles down to teach dressmaking to a new group of apprentices. Kollie's nine students have four sewing machines with which to stitch together women's garments - the camisoles and pagnes - that are common in the sub-region. Sometimes the women learn how to mend torn dresses. Their target is to learn how to sew in order to have a trade when they return to Liberia.

Progress towards the development target of achieving gender parity in education by 2015 may be inconsistent, but there are noteworthy successes. What do they teach us about addressing child labour and exploring interaction between early education and women's empowerment?

At the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, 164 states pledged to eliminate gender disparities in school enrolment by 2005 and to achieve gender equality by 2015. Are these key Education for All (EFA) targets likely to be met? Have the barriers that have traditionally prevented girls from getting the schooling to which they are entitled, begun to break down?

Government's must take responsibility for women's health, develop more gender sensitive policies and increase health budgets for women's sexual and reproductive health. These are three demands contained in a brief produced by the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) entitled 'Health sector reforms: hazardous to women's health'. The brief outlines the main issues related to health-related reforms and suggests what individuals can do to effect change. Topics covered include budget cuts, structural adjustment programs (SAPs), Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), privatisation of health services, the unregulated health market, user fees, and the limits of health insurance.

A young East African University friend of mine, who in response to my suggestion that he ought to be more gender sensitive, just boasted: “I was born and raised to be an African 'man' so I will remain as such, why change a cultural habit of a lifetime?” I was stunned. His response was a clear indication that a significant number of men, boys and even women of African descent still think gender is a female preserve that they have little to do with. This can be partly attributed to the forces of masculinity, a socially force-fed emotional and physical masquerade which often thrives due to 'cultural' and 'biological' influences that make it necessary for men to assume certain roles but not others.

At the 48th session of the Commission for the Status of Women in New York a key topic of discussion was indeed the role of men and boys in gender equality. Despite this, the tireless efforts of inter-governmental initiatives to adopt UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security as far back as October 2000 have only just begun to emerge in practice. So how effective can an initiative to bring men and boys aboard the gender agenda be at translating complex policy into practice? And why is the role of men and boys in gender equality so crucial to peace and security?

Even at the cusp of a new millennium it is mostly men who wield political power at the national, regional and international policy-making level. This is certainly the case within post-conflict nations such as Eritrea where a considerable female frontline combatant and civilian population is now disproportionately represented within government. This hinders women's ability to engage in situations of ensuing, fully fledged and easing conflict.

The United Nations system itself epitomizes a male-dominated structure where men still occupy many high-level posts. So it becomes imperative to train and to gender -sensitize divisions such as the Department for Peacekeeping Operations on issues relating to peace and security before they embark on field missions.

There are still men and women within African civil society who remain oblivious to the existence of policies on gender, peace and security, which could change gender relations between and among men and women. Aside from this, putting early socialization and education at the grassroots level into practice could make a poignant impact, enabling men and boys to engender peace and security and not to threaten it. It is solely by doing this that African civil society can begin to deconstruct the flawed inter-cultural link between wars and masculinities.

Some questions still remain. How much of an effect has and will such practices have at the grassroots level and is there a sufficient amount of advocacy, training and capacity -building available to facilitate the inclusion of men and boys in this process?

Nowhere is such a question more appropriate than in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some of Africa's most horrific scenes of post-conflict gender based violence have occurred. People now refer to the persistence of such violence particularly in Bukavu and South Kivu, as the 'war within a war'. What is devastating is that that judicial, government and civilian attitudes within these areas are still locked in a belief that such grotesque acts of inhumanity form a part of traditional male practice. The ramifications are often detrimental to society and the economy, causing a dearth in income, forced migration, community level trauma, mistrust and a collapse in rural and urban kinship structures.

Although local NGO's have the capacity to identify and to overcome the impact of gender based violence on women, there doesn't appear to be a great deal done to sensitize male perpetrators, the military and judicial officials towards gender aware post-conflict reconstruction methods.

So in both policy and practice the role of gender in peace and security matters within Africa becomes increasingly important. The extent to which it is understood and implemented at both levels remains fraught. It is inevitably only the joint desire of men and women to create a culture of peace and gender equality within their communities that could sensitize civil society and governments towards such a goal.

We must not and indeed cannot speak of the importance of gender in peace and security without acknowledging that men and boys must be a part of its construction. Gender equality without men and boys is in fact like a skeleton without a spine. Socializing and educating the very men and boys who pose as our fathers, brothers, sons and friends could help demystify the cultural myths binding war and masculinity. This would then reduce the threat of further violence during armed conflict immensely, enabling men and boys to play a pivotal role in fostering peace and security and disabling their desire to violate the human rights of women and children whose lives are made difficult by the uncertainty of ferocious armed conflicts.

* Mebrak Tareke works for International Alert.

* Please send comments to

* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, Editors are also encouraged to make a donation.

Naledi Pandor, the education minister, says gender inequality in education should be addressed as a matter of urgency. Pandor was speaking at a gender equity conference in Gordons Bay, near Cape Town. She said there were disparities in the provision of education and the appointment of female managers within the education department in the country.

Women have formed a coalition to build and maintain a non-partisan initiative during and after the transition to multipartyism. They resolved to demand 40 to 50 percent representation in Cabinet and at all national levels. However, they ranked aspiration for presidency as the least priority among the nine major areas of concern they identified at the end of a three-day national women's conference. "We have decided to move forward, no turning back, no turning back," they chorused at the end of the conference.

Women were, once again, winners in the Local Authority elections: their representation has increased by some two per cent - excluding the Grootfontein results. An initial study of the results revealed that women gained 123 seats of 283 countrywide - up to 43,4 per cent from 41,3 per cent during the last elections. Of the 123 seats for women, Swapo won 78 for its candidates, the DTA 18, Congress of Democrats 14 (their Lüderitz candidate excluded), UDF nine, National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) three and the Civic Association of Henties Bay one.

Indigenous peoples, an estimated 370 million living in more than 70 countries, maintain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics distinct from those of the dominant societies they live in. Although among the most resilient of peoples worldwide, systematic marginalization throughout history has made them arguably one of the poorest and most vulnerable groups of people today. Many are victims of racial discrimination, social exclusion and rapid economic development without their consent. They have been denied their land rights, and deprived of access to basic needs like education and healthcare. When combined with other forms of discrimination, such as those based on race or ethnicity, the effects of gender discrimination can multiply, posing serious challenges to women's enjoyment of their basic human rights, says a UNIFEM briefing, 'Securing Indigenous Women’s Rights and Participation'.

Women parliamentarians from Commonwealth countries in Africa are currently reviewing progress on gender equity at a conference in Gaborone, Botswana. At the start of the conference on Monday, delegates acknowledged that much still needed to be done to safeguard the rights of women and address gender imbalances in education, employment and parliamentary representation. The conference takes place two months after the 48th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York from 1 to 12 March 2004, and aims to measure the level of compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly.

About 77 percent of young South Africans infected with HIV are women and 62 percent of them had believed they had a small or no chance of contracting the virus. The new figure tallies with a growing worldwide trend showing a far higher incidence of HIV infection among women than men. The figures were the highest authoritative results that local researchers have seen.