The Protocol on the Rights of Women in red, yellow and green

Introduction: Ratification Now!

After the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa in July 2003, women’s and human rights organizations were concerned that the ratification and domestication of the Protocol might take the same time as its drafting. In April 2004, these organizations noted that one year after adoption, only one country, The Comoros, had ratified the Protocol. In response, these national, regional and international organizations formed the Coalition on Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) in order to encourage governments to ratify and domesticate the Protocol. Since the beginning of the Coalition’s campaign, nine more countries have ratified the Protocol, bringing the total number of ratifications to ten. Although progress has been made, 5 more ratifications are required before the Protocol comes into force.

African Union Member States must recognize the importance of this Protocol in ensuring African women their rights. Rape in Congo, Sudan and Uganda are rampant; Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) plagues girls and women in Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone and Somalia amongst other countries; forced early marriages steal young girls of their childhood in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg! The violence and discrimination against African women cannot continue. At the AU Summit in Tripoli in July 2005, the Coalition looks to the African Heads of States to recognize this fact and to take action to uphold their promises made in the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa in Addis Ababa in July 2004. The AU member states must ratify the Protocol, taking the number of ratifications above and beyond 15 and bringing the Protocol into force this year as they committed to. - Faiza Mohamed, Equality Now

Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) hands red cards, yellow cards and green cards to African leaders

Countries which have received red cards for failing to sign or ratify the Protocol include:

Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Cape Verde, Egypt, Eritrea, Malawi, Mauritania, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Seychelles, Somalia, Sao Tome & Principe, Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia

Countries which have received yellow cards for signing but failing to ratify the Protocol include:

Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Niger, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Countries which have received green cards for signing and ratifying the Protocol include:

The Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Lesotho, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa

Tell African leaders to get on with ratification!

Nearly 4 000 people have told African leaders to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

You can join then now by signing a petition to African leaders online, by email or through sending an SMS message.

To sign online, visit http://www.pambazuka.org/petition

To sign by email, send a message to [email protected] with your full name in the body of the email

To sign by mobile phone, send a text message with the word petition followed by your full name to +27-832-933-934

Ratify Now!

* Pambazuka News has been supporting the SOAWR campaign. Ahead of the 5th African Union Summit in Libya from 28 June - 5 July 2005, this edition consists of editorials written by SOAWR members and updates about the progress of the campaign from across the African continent. - Note from the editors

Contents List

* Aspiration into action: Ratify the protocol now!

In Uganda in 1967 there were no women members of parliament and in 1980 only one out of the 143 members of Parliament was a woman. In the 1989 National Resistance Council elections, the NRM Government brought significant improvement to women’s political participation and reserved thirty-four seats for women. Uganda, writes Jacqueline Asiimwe, is often given as an example of effective women’s political participation, but there is a long way to go before the playing fields are truly level. Part of the solution is to turn the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals into action by ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

* Home-grown rights instruments: Supporting the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

Gladys Mutukwa explains the international and regional mechanisms available for the protection of women’s rights. States cannot show a commitment at one level and act differently at another, she argues. Failure to ratify a critical home-grown instrument like the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa calls into question any purported commitments to the rights of women, she concludes.

* Millennium Development Goals and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

In order to make full use of the ten years until the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, Souad Abdennebi-Abderrahim argues that it is a matter of great urgency for African states to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and join those who have already done so (The Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal). Ratifying the Protocol would lead to states preparing an adequate strategy for the implementation of its provisions.

* Overcoming maternal mortality in Tanzania

Ananilea Nkya looks at the rise of maternal mortality in Tanzania and asks whether more attention would be given to the deaths if they were caused by road accidents or plane crashes. Without a concerted effort to reduce maternal mortality, the Millennium Development Goals will remain a dream, she says.

* Removing “unfreedoms”: Women and debt cancellation

Women have suffered the most as a result of the diversion of funds from social services in order to service debt repayments. In solving the debt crisis and making sure that it never happens again, the political and economic participation of women is crucial. That’s why the Protocol on the Rights of Women must be ratified, says this Pambazuka News article.

* Women’s rights in African countries: An A-Z of African countries involved in ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

* www links and further reading