From: Nunu Kidane <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 14:29:05 -0800
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Adna-list]  UPDATE: AI statement on women's right and African
Union

ADNA UPDATE: 030223
Message from: Amnesty International
For contact information see also:
http://www.africaaction.org/adna
contact: Adodtei Akwei - [log in to unmask]

Embargo Date: 23 March 2003 00:01 GMT


African Union: An opportunity to strengthen the  promotion and protection of
the women's  rights


Amnesty International urges the African Union ministerial meeting, convening
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 24 to 28 March,  to agree on a protocol to
strengthen the human rights framework for the protection and promotion of
women's rights in Africa.

        "It is vital that the Draft Protocol includes measures to ensure
greater accountability  of states to eliminate prejudices and practices that
impede women's rights to equality and freedom from discrimination. The
meeting must send an important message to African governments that the human
rights of women are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of
internationally recognized human rights," Amnesty International said.

       The Draft Protocol is expected to be adopted by the Assembly of Heads
of the African Union at its second session in Maputo in July.

Numerous violations of women's rights, including female genital mutilation,
forced marriage, domestic violence and rape, occur on a daily basis in
Africa. These abuses result from, and are compounded by, women's social and
economic inequality: lack of access to education, land, financial resources
and health care and their inequality within the family.

Amnesty International appeals to the government participants to agree on
comprehensive standards that would not only guarantee women's right to live
free from violence, but also provide more effective implementation and
enforcement mechanisms.

"Since many abuses of women's rights, especially gender violence, result
from private action, participants should seek the inclusion of explicit
provisions on the question of state responsibility for violations of women's
rights by private groups and individuals, in the Draft Protocol," Amnesty
International urged.

"Any consideration of possible human rights standards to strengthen the
Draft Protocol must necessarily take into account the needs and opinions of
African women, and draw on their insights and experiences about what is
central to their integrity as human beings."

Background
Negotiations around the Draft Protocol of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa began in 1995. The last
meeting of governments experts to negotiate the Draft Protocol took place in
November 2001 in Addis Ababa.
        Once the text of the Draft Protocol is agreed by the government
experts, it will be passed to the African Union Assembly for its adoption in
July 2003.
       This Draft Protocol contains provisions to promote and protect a wide
rage of human rights of women in Africa, including the right to life,
integrity and security of person, protection from harmful traditional
practices, and protection of women in armed conflict.
       The current draft mandates the African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights to monitor states' implementation of the provisions of the
Protocol.
------------------------------
This message from Amnesty International is distributed through the Advocacy
Network for Africa (ADNA)

Nunu Kidane
Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA)
Communications Facilitator for ADNA
Africa Action
1634 Eye Street, NW, #810,
Washington, DC 20006, USA.
Tel: (202) 546-7961 Fax: (202) 546-1545
www.africaaction.org <http://www.africaaction.org/>
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