Fifteen national, continental and international civil society organisations hailed the AU Conference of African Health Ministers meeting in Johannesburg South Africa for adopting the Africa Health Strategy: 2007-2015 (AFRICA_HEALTH_STRATEGY_FINAL.pdf). Meeting on the margins of the Conference, the CSO groups commended the ministers for their commitment to a vision of a “prosperous Africa free of its heavy burden of disease, disability and premature death” and to the goal of ensuring “access to essential health care for all Africans, especially the poorest and most marginalized”. They welcomed the recognition of health as a human right, and the need to advance women’s rights and equality, as women not only bear the greatest disease burden but are also primary care givers. The organisations welcomed the recognition that civil society organisations have been given in continental debates and as key players in delivery of health at all levels. ‘We look forward to actions that will turn these fine statements into reality’, they said.

In an unprecedented move, the commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union, Adv. Bience Gawanas announced in plenary that the AU commission had received a petition from 1000 strong civil society march on the precincts of the conference led by the Treatment for Action Campaign (TAC) and addressed by partners from Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique. The petition called on African governments to move fast to implement the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. Commissioner Gawanas urged the ministers to take into consideration the civil society concerns on the implementation.

In their closing statement on the Conference, the organisations however expressed their regret that the Strategy was silent on the urgent need for rolling out Anti-Retroviral Therapies (ARTs) to all who need them. It is estimated that less than 4% of Africans who need ARTs receive them and most of these are due to the effort of donors rather than governments. An African health strategy, they said, must include at least the:
• Urgent roll out of ARTs to all who need them;
• Right of survivors of sexual violence to Post Exposure Prophylaxis (This was proposed by the Minister of Health from Burundi for inclusion in the strategy document, but it is not clear if this will be in the final text); and
• Right of all pregnant women who are HIV positive to prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) therapies (PMTCT is mentioned in the strategy as part of the instruments needed, but not confirmed as a right).

The organisations committed to cooperate with African governments and the African Union to ensure the realization of the right of health for all Africans.

For the final CSO communique please visit

The fifteen civil society organisations are: AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), AIDS Law Project (ALP), Mozambican Treatment Access Movement (MATRAM), International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), network of Zimbabwean Positive Women (NZPW), Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Southern Africa Treatment Access Movement (SATAMO), Swaziland Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (SWANEPWA), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Zimbabwe Activists against HIV/AIDS ( ZAHA), and Zimbabwe National Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (ZNNP)

Eve Odete, part of the SOAWR coalition delegation, reports back on the events in Banjul where Niger's rejection of the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is roundly condemned. Despite that set back, support for the protocol grows, boosted in particular by the launch of the joint publication from SOAWR and the AU Commission of 'Breathing life into the African Union Protocol Women's Rights in Africa'.

The Seventh Summit of the African Union and its preliminary sessions, the Executive Council and Permanent Representative Council, has just ended in the Smiling Coast, the Gambia. As I look back at the press coverage during the summit, I scan a rainbow of grandiose arrivals including the outgoing Secretary General of the UN, Koffi Anan, the President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Thai diplomat, and the Chinese investor. Beyond the official Summit theme, Rationalization of Regional Economic Communities and Regional Integration, and the evidently charged geo-political agenda, did anything else happen?

Niger in Focus

‘The action by the national Parliament of Niger to reject, in its entirety the AU protocol on the Rights of African Women sets a dangerous precedence for the rest of Africa’ lamented Madame Djatou Traore, president, CONGAFEN Niger. Such was the clarion call by Solidarity for the Rights of Women in Africa, SOAWR, throughout the Summit, and it resonated among key policy makers. Caroline Osero-Agengo of SOAWR in congratulating the Gambian National Assembly for lifting the reservations on the Protocol called on the Vice-President Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs the Gambia to use the opportunity of the AU Summit to urge her counterpart in Niger to take steps to reverse the recent decision by the National Assembly of Niger. She said “for the millions of women and girls that continue to be stalked by the female genital mutilation and other harmful practices across Africa, the Protocol offers an opportunity to rectify the absence of laws against the harmful cultural practices’’ Is it the spirit of the Summit that generates an immediate commitment by Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy to urge the Speaker of the National Assembly of Niger to revisit the issue?

It is June 25 and the plenary room at the Kairaba Hotel is filled with over 100 women and men under the banner of the Solidarity for the Rights of African Women Coalition for a public symposium. I see faces from the previous day’s public forum also hosted by the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights. One after the other, participants dissects the Protocol. We hear painful stories of an aunt having to dissuade her niece from disfiguring herself through FGM and the joyful stories of a female excisor change profession to become a tailor. ‘’Nowhere is the dividing line between the past and the future more clear than the struggle to eradicate harmful cultural practices and to expand the power of women over their own bodies, assets and relationships.’’ Says Irungu Houghton. I note the sustained participation of the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Human Rights, Angela Melo, and hear her commit her good offices to urge member states to accelerate the ratification of the Protocol. Commissioner Melo singles out the National Assembly of Niger, deploring their recent action to reject, by a close vote in parliament, the Protocol in its entirety. She pledges to send a mission to Niger to persuade the government to rescind the decision. Commissioner Melo further deplores the lack of political will in Africa in advancing Protocol.

The long awaited, high profile public launch of the joint AU Commmission / SOAWR publication, and ‘Breathing Life into the AU protocol on Women’s Rights’ is here [1]. The ceremony attracts over 100 citizens and dignitaries from The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa attending the 7th Ordinary Summit of the African Union. In Launching the book, Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, calls for urgent public information campaigns for the women to understand and demand protection under the provisions of the Protocol. She commends the book to everyone present, all Government departments, NGOs, institutions of learning and individual women and men. ‘I encourage the organisers to translate into local languages and distribute the book far and wide’ She says.

In her speech during the launch, Winnie Byanyima, director, AU Gender, Women and Development Directorate, and moderator of the session, emphasizes the significance of the Protocol to the life of women in Darfur and reiterates the commitment of her Directorate to take into consideration their plight.

Ambassador Said Djinnit, Commissioner for Peace and Security Council applauds the ardent campaign by the women’s movement towards the development and the ultimate ratification of the Protocol. He reiterates his call to both men and women to sustain the efforts, and his firm belief in the rights of women and gender equality. He traces his personal experience as OAU Assistant Secretary General of working with women civil society leaders and Ambassadors to negotiate the adoption of a progressive and visionary Protocol. He closes by arguing, “You cannot transform a continent while keeping women away from decision-making. We need to develop alliances with each other.”

The book makes a clarion call for the universal ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol and is available from SOAWR members and the African Union Commission.

Common advocacy front is negotiated

The culmination of the AU pre-Summit Women’s Forum is a resolution adopted by the forum stating key policy messages for consideration by the AU [2]. The resolution is further strengthened when a joint AUC, SOAWR and FAS meeting agrees to consolidate their positions into one Resolution for submission to the Summit (see below). Adopted on 27 June 2006, the resolution addresses among others, the enforcement of the principle of gender parity in all key AU organs, the acceleration of the ratification of the AU protocol on the Rights of women, and the enhancement of human security in situations of conflict.

Further discussions with the Gender Directorate agree the consolidation of a common advocacy platform for the women’s movement in subsequent summits to ensure effective influencing of the AU agenda. Winnie further urges the women’s movement to strive to influence the summit agenda more proactively by negotiating common positions in line with the summit themes. A way of working to this end was agreed. I can’t agree more.

The visibility of the campaign during the summit is enhanced by several national and regional media hits following three well-attended press conferences and coverage of the high profile events. To cap this, and widely televised, is a green card issued to the vice president of the Gambia in honor of the exemplary role of the National Assembly in lifting all reservations to the Protocol.

In spite of my frustrations with flight connections to Banjul and the helicopter ride in Sierra Leone, I return home satisfied that the list of champions on the Protocol has grown.

* Eve Odete is Pan Africa Policy Officer for Oxfam GB.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

[1] Breathing life into the African Union Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa is published jointly by SOAWR and the AU Commission, and can be ordered at http://www.africanbookscollective.com/

[2] Resolution Adopted at the pre-Summit Women's Forum in Banjul:

Macro-economic reform, armed conflict and weak democratic political institutions are some of the limitations to enacting laws that protect women. A strong political will by African governments against these forces is crucial for the enforcement of laws that protect women, writes Eve Odete.

On 6 September 2005, the Gambia ratified the Africa Union Protocol on the Rights of African Women, bringing to 13 the number of countries that have ratified this landmark legislation on the rights of women in Africa. With only two more country ratifications required to bring the protocol into force, the next crucial phase in the first step to the realization of the rights of women in Africa is domestication of the law, and the prerequisite for this is political will within African states, for change.

At the twilight of the coming to force of the protocol, African civil society organisations and women’s movements join the African Union, together with progressive states, to welcome an African legal instrument that dangles to the over 400 million women in Africa the promise of social, cultural, economic, and political emancipation. The protocol, like its forerunner the Africa Charter on Peoples’ Rights, stands to swing African governments into action on creating platforms for addressing the rights of women in relation to food security, equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making, equal access to education and training, reproductive rights and access to health and the all important right to land, property and credit.

Africa is replete with civil society and women’s movements working with governments to create new policies, national action plans and legislation to protect the rights of women. Efforts in Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Kenya have seen governments work very closely with coalitions of civil society organisations in developing national action plans for women. These efforts have largely been the result of intense pressure and lobbying by civil society through mass education on women’s rights, solidarity-building and lobbying governments for policy space within national structures.

The success in these efforts vary largely across Africa, but characteristically, the extent to which these action plans (e.g Beijing Plan of Action) and the domestic and international legislation ( e.g CEDAW) have been translated into real programmes with clear policy outcomes for African women is minimal. Budgets for women’s programmes remain insignificant as the agencies that are created or expanded to implement gender programmes remain under-resourced. Specific policy pronouncements have been made in relation to women’s right to property, participation in decision-making, and safety nets for vulnerable groups against the impact of harsh macro-economic policies. These have remained on government policy papers and on the lips of the agitating groups. They have lacked in time-bound targets and benchmarks for monitoring. The role of NGOs in the consultation and agenda setting has been nebulous as most structures for such engagement have remained unclear and un-funded even when these have been clearly spelled out in legislation.

Limitations in enacting laws that seek to protect women range from the harsh realities of macro-economic programmes, devastation of armed conflict, the emergence of counter social forces opposed to women’s rights, weaknesses of democratic political institutions, the weakness of a vigorous civil society and the lack of political will. A strong political will by African governments against these forces is therefore an imperative for the enforcement of laws that protect women. In the absence of a counter civil force that keeps the agenda of women alive on the policy platform, governments are want to sweep such legislation under the political carpet.

Way back in March 1995 in Lome, Togo, civil society and women’s movements began to scale the typical socio-political and economic hurdles to see the protocol established. They continue to lobby African governments to finally bring it into force. Against the signatures and ratifications is a fragile political will by national governments that this third force, the civil society organisations and women’s movements, must keep afloat.

* Eve Odete is Pan Africa Policy Officer, Oxfam GB.

* Please send comments to [email protected]