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Subject: [WASAN] FW: Pambazuka News 162: African leaders must act now to
    ratify protocol on rights of women



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Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 09:44:47 +0100
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Subject: Pambazuka News 162: African leaders must act now to ratify protocol
on rights of women

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 162: UNFINISHED BUSINESS - AFRICAN LEADERS MUST ACT NOW
TO RATIFY THE PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
A Weekly Electronic Forum For Social Justice In Africa
To view online, go to http://www.pambazuka.org/

SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN
AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA

***************************************************
Please sign the online petition at
http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1
***************************************************

CONTENTS: 1. Highlights from this issue, 2. Editorial, 3. The Rights of
Women: News and views, 4. Advocacy and Campaigns

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1. Highlights from this issue

PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA: CAMPAIGN EDITION
CONTENTS LIST
SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN
AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA

***************************************************************
**SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA: SIGN AN ONLINE PETITION**
http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1

***************************************************************
"I urge all African States to ratify the Protocol immediately; because
African women's rights cannot be postponed as any human rights cannot
be postponed."
Graça Machel
***************************************************************

"I am hopeful that all African Union member states will ratify the
Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa in the same spirit and with
the same commitment they have adopted and are using to implement the
gender component of the Statute of the AU, demonstrated by the
encouraging example of appointing women to fill 50% of the seats on the
African Commission."
Navanethem Pillay, South African judge on the International Criminal
Court (ICC)
***************************************************************

Visit:

http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1

to sign the petition urging African states to ratify the Protocol on
the Rights of Women in Africa. Once you have signed online remember to
confirm your signature through an email that will be sent to you.

****************************************************************

CONTENTS

1. Unfinished Business - African Leaders Must Act Now to ratify The
Protocol on the Rights of Women

The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a
piece of paper without any force, points out FAIZA JAMA MOHAMED. Even
though the campaign by activists for the text of The Protocol on the
Rights of African Women represented a successful model of cooperation
among national, regional and international women's NGOs the rights it
represent remain hypothetical until it is ratified.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22726

2. A plea for ratification

By ratifying The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa the
preservation of African values is placed with women, "the custodians of
legends and traditions known in our time for their unending fight for
peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity". ZEINAB KAMIL ALI
believes that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States
to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the Protocol.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22732

3. The entry into force of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in
Africa: A challenge for Africa and women

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 says that it is important to note
that it is a long way to the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry
into force of the protocol. 3Every 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.2

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22721

4. African states: Equal to the task?

HANNAH FORSTER looks at the background and scope of the Protocol on the
Rights of Women in Africa, highlighting some of the landmark provisions
and what states will commit themselves once they ratify the Protocol.
She concludes by appealing to states to stand up and perform their
duty.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22727

5. Time to take count of Africa's daughters

Good is no good where better can be attained, states GICHINGA NDIRANGU.
Ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is an important
step, but domesticating its provisions into national law is the next
crucial step.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22723

6. Making governments accountable

Political expediency and global image are the reasons why governments
ratify international human rights instruments, says DR SYLVIA TAMALE.
But by ratifying governments are pledging to adhere to all the
provisions of any given instrument. In this context, it is the duty of
citizens to make governments accountable.

Full article:http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22724

7. Zimbabwe's Women Acting Against AIDS

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's
impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS
that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination, writes
ISABELLA MATAMBANADZO. 3The race, sex and class factors that have for
the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly,
one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.2

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22725

8. 3It is not a gift to offer women, it is their right2

Women that are free from violence, educated and who fully participate
in decision making at all levels: these are some of the results
expected by the implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter
on Human and People1s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. And,
asks MORISSANDA KOUYATE, which country would not want that for its
citizens?

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22731

9. Meeting the gender parity target of 2005
As African leaders and heads of state plan to join hands in the
forthcoming AU summit in Addis next month, three years after appending
their signatures to the Dakar Framework for action (EFA Protocol,
2000), civil society1s perception on progress made on EFA by African
countries has been mixed, argues ANDIWO OBONDOH

10. The realityS<caron>and the paperwork

War and violence, destitution, disease, poverty and discrimination - it
is often African women who carry the burden of Africa's economic,
social and political crisis. In July 2003 a piece of paper with a
preamble and 29 articles was passed by the African Union that was
hailed as major progress in the struggle for the rights of women on the
continent. But what exactly is the reality facing African women? And
how does the paperwork begin to address the realities? PAMBAZUKA NEWS
looks at ten areas effecting women's rights and what the protocol says
about them.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22722

** Statistics on gender in Africa, links to interesting articles,
useful web sites and resources on women's rights.

This special issue has been produced jointly by Fahamu, Equality Now,
FEMNET CREDO and Oxfam GB.


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2. Editorial

1. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - AFRICAN LEADERS MUST ACT NOW TO RATIFY THE
PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
Faiza Jama Mohamed
It took almost a decade (eight years to be precise) for African leaders
to finally agree on a text and adopt the Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa at the Second Ordinary Summit of the African Union held
in Maputo in July 2003. The Protocol is a legal framework for African
women to use in the exercise of their rights. It is comprehensive in
that it addresses various concerns of women of different ages and
various conditions based on the realities at the ground. For that
reason it is welcomed and celebrated by all African women.

Before it finally came onto the agenda of the heads of states meeting
last year, several obstacles that inhibited completion of this
important document had to be overcome. The first experts meeting
convened by the OAU (now the African Union) in November 2001 brought
together officials who in the majority regrettably had little legal or
gender expertise. As a result, the draft document that came out of that
meeting had serious gaps and was of a lower standard compared to other
comparable international law instruments such as the Convention on
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which
most African states, had already ratified.

The experts meeting also failed to reach agreement on some aspects of
the draft. A future date was set to finalize the outstanding
provisions, but this meeting and others called by the OAU/African Union
to achieve this purpose had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum.
Activists around Africa saw two problems: the document was weak and did
not adequately address the specific issues relating to African women,
and it was not moving forward due to the repeated lack of a quorum,
which expressed the low priority accorded to women, although they
comprise over 50% of Africa's population, by the very governments they
have voted into office.

Activists then decided it was time to refocus their efforts. Various
consultations were held around Africa among civil society
organizations. Equality Now, an international human rights
organization, joined the process in July 2002 at a meeting convened by
the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Nairobi. Equality Now
also consulted with the African Women's Development and Communications
Network (FEMNET), the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights
Studies (ACDHRS), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), and
other regional and national groups that were most actively engaged in
working toward the passage of a strong Protocol for the protection and
promotion of women's rights.

In January 2003, Equality Now convened a strategy meeting of activists
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, proceeding with the meeting although the
governmental meeting it was scheduled to coincide with was again
cancelled for lack of a quorum. The meeting discussed, reviewed and
strengthened the text of the draft Protocol through dialogue among
women's rights organizations from across Africa and produced a
collective mark-up, which was widely distributed across the continent
for promotion with national governments. The coalition of activists
also lobbied African governments to send delegates with legal and human
rights expertise from their capitals to the scheduled meeting of the
African Union.

Equality Now was nominated to take on a coordinating role and to work
closely with the Secretariat of the African Union to encourage it to
facilitate a successful meeting. In response to the campaign several
countries held national consultation meetings, with the participation
of civil society organizations, to review the mark-up. Several
countries also brought members from civil society as part of their
delegation to the experts meeting.

All in all, countries were much better prepared when they came for the
experts meeting in March 2003 and many were also open to improving the
existing document. Immediately prior to the Meeting of Experts and the
African Union Ministerial Meeting that took place in Addis Ababa,
Equality Now's Africa Office convened another meeting of women's rights
activists and organizations, in order to coordinate a strategic plan
for advocacy and to ensure that the substantive provisions of the draft
Protocol were strengthened during the course of the experts' and
ministerial meetings. These advocacy efforts had a dramatic impact on
the draft Protocol, which was significantly improved during the course
of the meeting. Subsequently, On July 11, 2003, the African Union
adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The campaign by activists for The Protocol on the Rights of African
Women represents a successful model of cooperation among national,
regional and international women's NGOs that led to concrete results,
namely the strengthening of the final text of The Protocol with regard
to a number of significant provisions enumerating fundamental women's
rights and its adoption by the African Union. The African Union's
Commissioner Djinnit Said also saw the campaign around the Protocol as
an excellent model for collaboration between the African Union and
civil society organizations and said as much in a meeting the African
Union hosted earlier in the year to consult with African civil society
organizations.

One year after its adoption, however, only 30 countries have signed the
Protocol and only one (the Comoros) has ratified it. It needs 15
ratifications to enter into force. Until then these rights remain
hypothetical! All the past efforts by civil society will have been
wasted if the Protocol is not ratified. And the majority of women in
Africa will continue to be deprived of protection under international
law of many of their basic rights. For this reason, activists have once
again pooled their resources, energy and focus to urge governments to
honour their commitments to uphold women's rights by ratifying the
Protocol as soon as possible, ideally by the heads of state summit in
July 2004.

Women around Africa are daily monitoring the website of the African
Union taking note of which of their leaders are true to their
commitments. Women's organizations and human rights organizations in
Africa have launched national campaigns to lobby their respective
governments engaging in dialogue with the relevant ministries of
Justice, Foreign Affairs, Gender and in some cases even the heads of
states offices to impress upon them the importance of ratifying the
Protocol without delay.

With a concerted effort, together we can achieve ratification. That is
why activists in Guinea-Conakry are working hard to sensitize
parliamentarians and decision-makers through workshops and meetings in
an effort to win support for the ratification of the Protocol, groups
in Kenya are engaging dialogue with several ministries (Ministry of
Gender, Sports and Culture; Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs) to sensitize them and discuss the process of
ratification and the need to speed up the ratification process. In Mali
women are planning to hold information and sensitization forums with
Parliamentarians on the Protocol as well as mobilizing women's
organizations to make a declaration urging the government to ratify the
Protocol. In South Africa plans are underway to inform the Office of
the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs and the State Law
advisors as well as the Parliamentary Commissions on Justice, quality
of life and the Status of Women on the Protocol and discuss the
obstacles to the early ratification of the Protocol. And these are just
some of the activities planned around the continent to press for
ratification. It is imperative that governments heed our urgent call
for women to be guaranteed equal status to men and equal protection of
their rights.

The Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa as it stands now is a
piece of paper without any force. By ratifying it, governments will be
taking the first step towards recognizing the equal worth of women.
Implementation will then be critical. The Protocol makes many equality
advances for women under international law, including affording special
protection for vulnerable groups such as widows, the disabled and those
from marginalised groups. It is only by protecting and promoting the
rights of all its peoples that Africa will be able to access its full
resources and lead the continent to prosperity. The Beijing +10 review
process offers African governments an opportunity to demonstrate their
determination to lead their peoples' to the path to development. One
concrete benchmark on this path to development is the seriousness that
they give to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. If they
ratify it now they will have a concrete achievement to bring to the
table later this year when the continent comes together for the Beijing
+10 conference, as a gesture of recognition for the human rights of
women as a priority agenda of the continent.

We call on African leaders to honor their commitments to women and ACT
NOW to ratify the Protocol!

* Faiza Jama Mohamed works for Equality Now.

* Please send comments to [log in to unmask]
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22726

2. A PLEA FOR RATIFICATION
Zeinab Kamil Ali
Some big events in life pass by unnoticed at the time of happening by
human intelligence. We must generally wait for the precious analyses of
historians several decades later so as to qualify the events as
historic. It is often said quite mechanically that history is repeating
itself, without thinking about the lessons to be drawn from such
pronouncements. Must we wait for the end of the century to recognize
the historical value contained in the Protocol on the Rights of Women?

 From the Constitutive Act of the African Union, it seems that Africa
has made a step forward in following the chorus of nations. In fact,
strong regional structures and decisions that have been re-dynamised
and honored by the visionary leadership of the Heads of States, Africa
is now adorned with the essentials that it had lacked until then: she
is now equipped with a common will, a real union to mobilize her
energies and merge the synergies towards a common objective in the
fight against underdevelopment and the numerous ills that this entails.

As reassuring as consequence of the regional policies may be there is
no doubt that the innovation to highlight rests in the recognition of
the woman as an equal partner with the man and the need for her
involvement in the management of African affairs, state affairs and
family or private affairs. The African woman remains from now on at the
center of the credo of all political discussions. The consecration of
the concept of gender parity in the Constitutive Act of the African
Union in the recruitment of Commissioners and all other technical
personnel brilliantly marks the end of an era where actions for the
promotion of women were included under pressure for the conditionality
imposed by donors and this without any conviction or concern for the
improvement in the condition of the African woman.

In fact the Constitutive Act of the African union in its framework for
the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and
People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, constitutes the
expected detonator to reaffirm and implement the principle of equality
and its corollary the principle of non discrimination. In other words,
the adoption of an African instrument specific to the rights of women
reveals in plain language the appropriation by the African states of
the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

In all the big meetings in the history of Africa, Africans have known
how to show their courage and mobilize their energies so as to make
heard the cause of their people. By this Protocol that solemnly
reaffirms their rights, the protection of their dignity and their non
disputable role in the management of the affairs of the state and in
the decision making spheres, Africans are recovering the merits that
are coming back to them, that which was praised in the songs and tales
of our ancestors but made to look bad in a contemporary epoch full of
traditional values. What does the Protocol to the African Charter on
Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa say ?

As a regional instrument, it flows from the African Charter on Human
and People's Rights adopted in 1981, which it has the merit of
completing in conformity to the provisions of Article 66 of the African
Charter. The provisions of the Protocol protect the rights of African
women such as they are recognized and guarantied to all human beings
and particularly by the international instruments on human rights
namely the Universal Declaration on human rights, the international
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and its
Optional Protocols and the African Charter on the Rights and Well Being
of the Child and all other conventions and international treaties on
women's rights as human rights, inalienable, interdependent and
indivisible.

The 12th consideration in the Preamble constitutes the framework within
which to understand the Protocol.

- The rights protected by the Protocol

The rights protected in the Protocol are diverse and are not
exhaustively discussed in this paper. However the principle of equality
cuts across. With its corollary the principle of non-discrimination,
the principle of equality, is recognized in all African constitutions.

The francophone countries recognize equality between men and women
formally and in the law. In the other countries however there are
specific mechanisms for putting into effect these legal principles. The
Protocol goes beyond the abstract of laws protecting women's rights.
There are specific provisions to ensure that the laws are implemented
with specific actions given to guide such processes. These are found in
the provisions on the right to life, to integrity, security,
elimination of all harmful practices, access to justice and equal
protection before the law. The need for concrete application
reverberates through the whole document and economic rights of the
woman as well as the right to social protection are recognized.

In using complimentary forms of expression, the protocol retains the
African touch in its context to give significance to the African
reality. The right to food security, the encouragement of the creation
of a system of social protection in favor of women working in the
informal sector makes real sense to the African woman. The Protocol
brings the women' s rights from the Universal setting to a point where
all and sundry are able to access them. This plea for the ratification
finds a basis in this. The majority of the African constitutions have
provision for the necessary legislative mechanisms to protect the
rights of women. The ratification of the Protocol will stir up the
constitutional mechanisms into action and where absent make it possible
for the establishment of such mechanisms.

Further by virtue of Article 26 the States have an obligation to
include the level of implementation of the Protocol in their periodic
reports to the African Commission on Human Rights. Paragraph 2 of
Article 26 makes an interesting provision in as far as the budgetary
question goes and this is indeed a soft spot for African states.

Thus the African states must allocate enough budgetary funds for the
implementation of the protocol. Hitherto the budgetary allocations have
been very weak for women's issues.

- Innovation of the Protocol

The Protocol takes into account the aged as well as the handicapped and
the illiterate. This is an indication of the evolution of the African
society and further offers special protection for women in situations
of distress, women in prison, and pregnant and lactating mothers. The
recognition of the rights of widows is a further indication of this
evolution as widows suffer a lot in the hands of tradition and blatant
disregard for their rights upon the death of their husbands. The rights
of women to political participation and decision making is recognized
as well even though these rights are recognized in the ICCPR and its
predecessor, the 1952 convention.

Article 9 brings in for the first time the term parity and this Article
paves the way for affirmative action in legislation in the member
states. A distinction is made in the article between equality of
chances and equality in result. It is noted that women must be made
equal partners with men in decision making processes as well as policy
formulation.

Women must be presented to the electorate in the democracies and this
can only happen if the political parties make it favorable for women to
vie for election. Political participation and its constituent
characteristics must be looked at from the perspective of the rights of
women.

Peace and development are interdependent in the same way that democracy
and respect for human rights are interdependent. Human rights cannot be
dissociated from women's rights. The human genus is made up of man and
woman. Harmony can only be attained if the rights of both are
respected.

The right to peace and the right to development are hardly ever
recognized in international conventions. This is a first as there had
only been mentions of the same in the General Assembly of the UN
without real protection of the rights.

The main advantage of the Protocol is that it seeks to harmonize the
different systems regulating the rights of the family and the woman.
The contradictions of the African systems are noted in the plural
judicial systems that often lead to confusion. The family in many
African states is managed by traditional laws and Sharia in the Muslim
states. As such substantial breaches to the principles of equality and
non-discrimination are entrenched in the Constitutions, the supreme
laws of these states. Article 6 shows the will to reconcile these
opposing and fundamental differences in legal systems of states.
Article 7 gives the courts and the judicial systems the duty to
arbitrate over personal law and laws of the family. The Protocol seeks
to do away with the confusion mentioned in the foregoing.

Article 6 c addresses the issues of marriage and highlights the
objective harmonization of the conflicting laws. It also brings to the
fore the search for a new Africa based on harmony and free of
contradiction. The preservation of African values is placed with women,
the custodians of legends and traditions known in our time for their
unending fight for peace, liberty, dignity, justice and solidarity. I
believe that this is argument enough to encourage the Heads of States
to emulate the Republic of Comoros in ratifying the protocol to the
African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in
Africa.

* Zeinab Kamil Ali is a member of the Commission on Human Rights,
Djibouti

* Please send comments to [log in to unmask]

* For the full French version please click on the link below.

Certains grands évènements de la vie passent inaperçus par
l1intelligence humaine au moment de leur accomplissement. Et il faut
généralement attendre l1analyse précieuse des historiens , quelques
décennies plus tard, pour enfin leur accorder le qualificatif «
d1historiques ».
On dit souvent très machinalement que « l1histoire se répète » , sans
se soucier des enseignements à tirer d1une telle assertion.
Faut-t-il donc attendre la fin d1un siècle pour reconnaître au
protocole africain sur les droits des femmes la valeur historique qui
lui revient ?

Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22732

3. 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

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