3. The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A challenge for Africa and women
The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women by the Conference of the Heads of State and Government (the Conference) at the African Union (AU) meeting in Maputo in July 2003 was undeniably an important event in the history of African women's struggle for the recognition of their rights.
This Protocol, the fruits of exemplary collaboration between the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (the Commission) and civil society organisations, was identified as a priority for the promotion and protection of the rights of African women during a workshop in March 1995 on women's rights, organised by the Commission, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) and the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva.
The workshop recommended that a protocol on women's rights should be established and a Special Rapporteur on the rights of women should be nominated. The Conference of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mandated the Commission to initiate and coordinate the process of developing a preliminary draft of the protocol. A working group was put in place to propose a text. Since the beginning, the process has been very participatory.
Civil society organisations mobilized themselves to enrich the first version written by the working group. This mobilization increased during the process, as more and more organisations became interested in all steps of the development of the protocol. The numerous ups and downs that punctuated the process sometimes worried civil society members. The long wait between the first and the second meetings, due to successive postponement of the second one, and in the absence of a quorum, was one of the most difficult moments.
However, the lobbying efforts of civil society and the determination of the officers of the African Union responsible for the file resulted in the second meeting of experts. This was followed by a meeting of ministers implicated in the process, who succeeded in registering the protocol on the agenda of the Council of Ministers in July 2003. Eight years after the beginning of the process, the protocol was thus finally adopted by Heads of State.
I relive the joy manifested by the lobby of women's organisations at the announcement of the protocol's adoption, and salute the cooperation that coalesced between certain commissioners and these women. But nobody was fooled! Once the protocol was adopted, there remained many equally important steps to take: to obtain the necessary signatures and ratifications for its entry into force and to respond to the challenge of its effective implementation.
One year on, where are we at in the process? Thirty signatures and one ratification had been registered by 15 June 2004, less than three weeks before the next AU Heads of State and Government Conference. Twelve of the signatory countries are in West Africa, eight in East African and five in southern Africa. Lobbying work must continue in all the regions of Africa, particularly in Central and North Africa, where only three and two signatures, respectively, have been registered. It is important to note that we are still far, very far, from the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. And the question of its ratification must absolutely, in one-way or another, be added to the agenda of the July 2004 Summit in Addis-Ababa, in the interests of women, African populations and the African Union.
But why is ratification of the protocol so important?
For African women, the entry into force of the protocol will be an essential step towards the recognition of their rights, the daily violations of which are the source of immense suffering. The protocol will offer, following the example of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a legal framework of reference, allowing diverse actors, as well as the population, to daily work towards the effective respect of women's rights. But, in addition to CEDAW, the legal framework of the protocol reflects specific violations to African women. Its preamble justifies the adoption of the protocol by the existence of discriminations against women and harmful traditional practices, despite commitments taken by States at regional and international levels. It also expresses leaders' formal support to the principle of equality between men and women.
In addition to these declarations, the protocol contains provisions to respond to problems as crucial as the multiple violations of rights in marital relations, violence and grave risks to the life, physical and moral integrity, and security of women and girls, the pressing reality of which we cannot deny in our societies. The entry into force of the protocol offers an invaluable framework to end violations against civilian, refugee and combatant women and children, particularly girls, in periods of conflict, and to uphold the challenge of peace in Africa, a condition sine qua non of development.
The fight against traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls needs the protocol, which provides guidelines for eliminating them. Economic and social rights as vital as the right to health, including reproductive health, to education and to inheritance rights for widows and girls, which are daily transgressed out of ignorance or deliberately, would be better protected if actions taken could rely on adequate measures, such as those recommended in the protocol. Definitively, there is no doubt that, in the interests of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Africa, the protocol on women's rights must be ratified as quickly as possible.
For African populations and societies, the absence of a legal framework of reference to fight against violations of women's rights currently constitutes a real handicap for the optimal participation of women in the development of their countries and of Africa, even though they constitute more than 50% of the population of the continent.
Finally, the credibility of the AU, which demonstrated its commitment to promote women's participation and gender equality, notably through parity in the AU Commission and in the equitable representation of Judges of the African Court for Human and People's Rights, rests on proving its coherence and consistency by implementing the protocol without delay. By doing so, the AU and its member States will show the world that, for them also, women's rights are truly an integral part of human rights, and that they are determined to promote and protect them without any discrimination.
The imminent entry into force of the protocol will mark, in sum, a decisive step towards entrenching a culture of respect and exercise of the human rights of women in African societies. For all these reasons, every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation. Our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, including those who are rarely accustomed to demand their rights, cry for help in a meaningful silence, but are often too quickly assimilated into resignation. It depends on each person to ensure that the voice of the voiceless are finally heard by those who are responsible for the fate of African populations.
* Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is the Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa, West Africa
* Please send comments to
* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.
L'adoption du Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme par la Conférence des Chefs d'États et de Gouvernement (la Conférence) de l'Union Africaine (UA) réunie à Maputo en juillet 2003 fût sans conteste un événement important dans l'histoire de la lutte des femmes africaines pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits.
Ce protocole, fruit d'une collaboration exemplaire entre la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (la Commission) et les organisations de la société civile a été ressenti comme une priorité pour la promotion et la protection des droits des femmes africaines au cours d'un atelier en mars 1995 organisé par la Commission en collaboration avec le WiLDAF/FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique) et la Commission Internationale de Juristes basé à Genève.
The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa will be an important step towards entrenching the human rights of women. But KAFUI ADJAMAGBO-JOHNSON points out that it is important to note that it is along way to the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. “Every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation.”
The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A challenge for Africa and women
Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson
The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women by the Conference of the Heads of State and Government (the Conference) at the African Union (AU) meeting in Maputo in July 2003 was undeniably an important event in the history of African women's struggle for the recognition of their rights.
This Protocol, the fruits of exemplary collaboration between the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (the Commission) and civil society organisations, was identified as a priority for the promotion and protection of the rights of African women during a workshop in March 1995 on women's rights, organised by the Commission, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) and the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva.
The workshop recommended that a protocol on women's rights should be established and a Special Rapporteur on the rights of women should be nominated. The Conference of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mandated the Commission to initiate and coordinate the process of developing a preliminary draft of the protocol. A working group was put in place to propose a text. Since the beginning, the process has been very participatory.
Civil society organisations mobilized themselves to enrich the first version written by the working group. This mobilization increased during the process, as more and more organisations became interested in all steps of the development of the protocol. The numerous ups and downs that punctuated the process sometimes worried civil society members. The long wait between the first and the second meetings, due to successive postponement of the second one, and in the absence of a quorum, was one of the most difficult moments.
However, the lobbying efforts of civil society and the determination of the officers of the African Union responsible for the file resulted in the second meeting of experts. This was followed by a meeting of ministers implicated in the process, who succeeded in registering the protocol on the agenda of the Council of Ministers in July 2003. Eight years after the beginning of the process, the protocol was thus finally adopted by Heads of State.
I relive the joy manifested by the lobby of women's organisations at the announcement of the protocol's adoption, and salute the cooperation that coalesced between certain commissioners and these women. But nobody was fooled! Once the protocol was adopted, there remained many equally important steps to take: to obtain the necessary signatures and ratifications for its entry into force and to respond to the challenge of its effective implementation.
One year on, where are we at in the process? Thirty signatures and one ratification had been registered by 15 June 2004, less than three weeks before the next AU Heads of State and Government Conference. Twelve of the signatory countries are in West Africa, eight in East African and five in southern Africa. Lobbying work must continue in all the regions of Africa, particularly in Central and North Africa, where only three and two signatures, respectively, have been registered. It is important to note that we are still far, very far, from the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. And the question of its ratification must absolutely, in one-way or another, be added to the agenda of the July 2004 Summit in Addis-Ababa, in the interests of women, African populations and the African Union.
But why is ratification of the protocol so important?
For African women, the entry into force of the protocol will be an essential step towards the recognition of their rights, the daily violations of which are the source of immense suffering. The protocol will offer, following the example of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a legal framework of reference, allowing diverse actors, as well as the population, to daily work towards the effective respect of women's rights. But, in addition to CEDAW, the legal framework of the protocol reflects specific violations to African women. Its preamble justifies the adoption of the protocol by the existence of discriminations against women and harmful traditional practices, despite commitments taken by States at regional and international levels. It also expresses leaders' formal support to the principle of equality between men and women.
In addition to these declarations, the protocol contains provisions to respond to problems as crucial as the multiple violations of rights in marital relations, violence and grave risks to the life, physical and moral integrity, and security of women and girls, the pressing reality of which we cannot deny in our societies. The entry into force of the protocol offers an invaluable framework to end violations against civilian, refugee and combatant women and children, particularly girls, in periods of conflict, and to uphold the challenge of peace in Africa, a condition sine qua non of development.
The fight against traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls needs the protocol, which provides guidelines for eliminating them. Economic and social rights as vital as the right to health, including reproductive health, to education and to inheritance rights for widows and girls, which are daily transgressed out of ignorance or deliberately, would be better protected if actions taken could rely on adequate measures, such as those recommended in the protocol. Definitively, there is no doubt that, in the interests of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Africa, the protocol on women's rights must be ratified as quickly as possible.
For African populations and societies, the absence of a legal framework of reference to fight against violations of women's rights currently constitutes a real handicap for the optimal participation of women in the development of their countries and of Africa, even though they constitute more than 50% of the population of the continent.
Finally, the credibility of the AU, which demonstrated its commitment to promote women's participation and gender equality, notably through parity in the AU Commission and in the equitable representation of Judges of the African Court for Human and People's Rights, rests on proving its coherence and consistency by implementing the protocol without delay. By doing so, the AU and its member States will show the world that, for them also, women's rights are truly an integral part of human rights, and that they are determined to promote and protect them without any discrimination.
The imminent entry into force of the protocol will mark, in sum, a decisive step towards entrenching a culture of respect and exercise of the human rights of women in African societies. For all these reasons, every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation. Our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, including those who are rarely accustomed to demand their rights, cry for help in a meaningful silence, but are often too quickly assimilated into resignation. It depends on each person to ensure that the voice of the voiceless are finally heard by those who are responsible for the fate of African populations.
* Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is the Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa, West Africa
* Please send comments to [email protected]
* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.
L'entrée en vigueur du protocole sur les droits des femmes en Afrique : un défi pour l'Afrique et les femmes
L'adoption du Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme par la Conférence des Chefs d'États et de Gouvernement (la Conférence) de l'Union Africaine (UA) réunie à Maputo en juillet 2003 fût sans conteste un événement important dans l'histoire de la lutte des femmes africaines pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits.
Ce protocole, fruit d'une collaboration exemplaire entre la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (la Commission) et les organisations de la société civile a été ressenti comme une priorité pour la promotion et la protection des droits des femmes africaines au cours d'un atelier en mars 1995 organisé par la Commission en collaboration avec le WiLDAF/FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique) et la Commission Internationale de Juristes basé à Genève.
Les recommandations de l'atelier préconisaient qu’un protocole sur les droits de la femme voit le jour et que soit nommé un Rapporteur spécial sur les droits de la femme. La Conférence de l'ancienne Organisation de l’Unité Africaine (OUA) a mandaté la Commission pour initier et coordonner le processus d'élaboration d'un avant projet de protocole. Un groupe de travail fût mis en place pour proposer un texte.
Dès les débuts, le processus a été très participatif. Les organisations de la société civile se sont mobilisées pour enrichir la première version rédigée par le groupe de travail. La mobilisation s’est accrue tout le long du processus car de plus en plus d'organisations s'intéressaient à toutes les étapes d’élaboration du protocole. Les nombreuses péripéties qui ont jalonné le processus ont parfois donné des sueurs froides à la société civile. La longue attente entre la première et la seconde réunion des experts, à cause des reports successifs faute de quorum, a été l'un des moments les plus durs.
Mais les efforts de lobbying de la société civile et la détermination marquée par les responsables de l'UA en charge du dossier ont forcé la tenue de la deuxième réunion des experts. Elle a été suivie de celle des ministres que le processus concernait qui ont réussi à obtenir l'inscription du protocole à l'agenda du Conseil des Ministres en juillet 2003. Huit ans après le démarrage du processus, le protocole a donc finalement été adopté par les Chefs d'États.
Je revis la joie manifestée par le lobby des organisations de femmes à l'annonce de son adoption et je salue la complicité qui a fini par se nouer entre certains commissaires et ces femmes pour qui ils sont devenus des alliés. Mais personne n'était dupe ! Le protocole adopté, il restait à franchir des étapes tout aussi importante : obtenir les signatures et les ratifications nécessaires pour son entrée en vigueur et relever de défi de son application effective.
Un an après, où en est le processus? Trente (30) signatures et une ratification ont été enregistrées au 15 juin 2004, à moins de trois semaines de la prochaine Conférence des Chefs d'État et de Gouvernement de l'UA. Douze des pays signataires proviennent de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, huit (8) d’Afrique de l'Est et cinq (5) d’Afrique Australe. Le travail de lobbying doit continuer dans toutes les régions d’Afrique, notamment en Afrique Centrale et du Nord où a été enregistré respectivement 3 et 2 signatures seulement. Force est de constater que nous sommes encore loin, bien loin du compte en ce qui concerne les 15 ratifications nécessaires pour l'entrée en vigueur du protocole ! Et la question de sa ratification doit absolument être d'une manière ou d'une autre ajouter à l'ordre du jour du Sommet d'Addis-Abeba de juillet 2004 en vue d'une solution rapide dans l'intérêt des femmes, des populations africaines et de l'Union africaine.
Mais pourquoi la ratification du protocole est-elle aussi importante?
Pour les femmes africaines, l'entrée en vigueur du protocole sera une étape essentielle vers la reconnaissance de droits dont les violations quotidiennes sont source d’immenses souffrances. Le protocole offrira, à l'instar de la Convention sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l'égard des femmes (CEDEF), un cadre juridique de référence permettant à divers acteurs ainsi qu'aux populations d'uvrer au quotidien au respect effectif des droits des femmes.
Mais plus que la CEDEF, le cadre juridique du protocole est le reflet des violations spécifiques aux femmes africaines. Le préambule justifie l'adoption du protocole par la subsistance de discriminations à l'égard des femmes et de pratiques traditionnelles néfastes, et ce malgré les engagements pris par les Etats sur le plan international et régional. Il exprime également de manière solennelle l'adhésion des dirigeants au principe de l'égalité entre hommes et femmes.
Au-delà de ces déclarations, le protocole permettra à travers ses dispositions de traiter des problèmes aussi cruciaux que les violations multiformes de droits dans les relations du mariage, les violences, graves atteintes à la vie, à l'intégrité physique et morale et à la sécurité des femmes et des filles, dont nul ne peut nier la réalité criarde dans nos sociétés. L'entrée en vigueur du protocole offre un cadre irremplaçable pour mettre fin aux violations dont les femmes et les enfants, notamment les filles, sont victimes en période de conflits en tant que civils, réfugiés ou soldats, et de relever le défi de la paix en Afrique, condition sine qua non du développement.
La lutte contre les pratiques traditionnelles néfastes à la santé des femmes et des filles a besoin du protocole qui donne des directives afin de les éliminer. Les droits économiques et sociaux aussi vitaux que le droit à la santé, y compris la santé de la reproduction, celui à l'éducation et les droits successoraux des veuves et des filles, qui sont quotidiennement bafoués par ignorance ou délibérément, seraient mieux protégés si les actions menées pouvaient s'appuyer sur les mesures adéquates comme celles préconisées par le protocole. En définitive, il n'y a aucun doute que dans l'intérêt des centaines de milliers de femmes et de filles d'Afrique, le protocole relatif aux droits des femmes doit être ratifié le plus rapidement possible.
Pour les populations et les sociétés africaines, l'absence d'un cadre juridique de référence permettant de lutter contre les violations des droits des femmes constitue actuellement un véritable handicap pour une participation optimale des femmes dans le développement de leurs pays et de l’Afrique alors qu’elles constituent plus de 50 % de la population du continent.
Enfin, il y va de la crédibilité de l’UA qui a démontré son engagement à promouvoir la participation des femmes et l'égalité des sexes, notamment avec la parité au sein de la Commission de l’UA et de la représentation équitable des Juges de la Cour Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples, de faire preuve de cohérence et de constance, en rendant applicable dans les meilleurs délais le protocole. Ce faisant, l'UA et les Etats membres montreront à la face du monde que, pour eux aussi, les droits des femmes font vraiment partie intégrante des droits humains qu'ils sont déterminés à promouvoir et à protéger sans aucune discrimination.
La prochaine entrée en vigueur du protocole marquera, en somme, une étape décisive vers l’enracinement d’une culture de respect et d'exercice des droits humains des femmes dans les sociétés africaines. Pour toutes ces raisons, tout militant de droits humains, homme ou femme, devrait se sentir concerné et agir auprès des autorités gouvernementales et parlementaires afin de les convaincre de ratifier et de prendre des mesures pour une application effective du protocole relatif aux droits des femmes.
Nos mères, nos filles, et nos surs, y compris celles qui sont peu habituées à revendiquer leurs droits, crient à l’aide dans un silence lourd de signification, mais parfois trop rapidement assimilé à de la résignation. Il dépend de chacun, que la voix des sans voix soit enfin entendue par ceux qui président aux destinés des populations en Afrique.