Source: awid
The Maputo Protocol is a ground-breaking women’s rights legal instrument that expands and reinforces the rights provided in other human rights instruments. The Protocol provides a broad range of economic and social welfare rights for women. Importantly it was produced by Africans and pays attention to the concerns of African women.

 AWID interviewed Faiza Jama Mohamed, Director of Equality Now about the Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR) campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women also known as the Maputo Protocol or the African Women’s Protocol (hereafter referred to as the Protocol).

The Maputo Protocol was adopted by the African Union (AU) on July 11, 2003 at its second summit in Maputo, Mozambique. The Protocol entered into force on November 25, 2005 after being ratified by the requisite 15 AU member states. Of the 53 AU member countries, 49 have signed the protocol, 31 of those countries have ratified it; and only four countries have not yet signed the Protocol.

This instrument highlights issues not effectively covered in other instruments but which have particular relevance to African women including HIV and AIDS, trafficking, widow inheritance and property grabbing. The Protocol sets forth the reproductive right of women to medical abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother. It explicitly calls for the legal prohibition of female genital mutilation (FGM), and prohibits the abuse of women in advertising and pornography.

AWID: Can you please recount how the Maputo Protocol was developed and how women’s groups mobilized to get it adopted?

Faiza Jama Mohamed (FJM): Following the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, a resolution was passed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) mandating the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to draft an additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) that would elaborate the human rights of African women. Drafting the Protocol became the main task of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa who enlisted support from various African women’s organizations.

In 2002, FEMNET raised concern that the tabled Protocol was weak and that experts had adopted it with the exception of only three provisions they agreed to revisit after country consultations. In addition, the AU was having difficulty getting a quorum to convene the second meeting of experts to conclude the Protocol. After consultations with FEMNET, WiLDAF and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Equality Now took the initiative to convene a two-day consultation meeting of women’s organizations in January 2003 in Addis Ababa.

Following that meeting, we generated a mark-up of the draft Protocol showing areas of weaknesses that needed to be improved, also providing stronger language for provisions that the participants found to be of lower standard than CEDAW. This was shared with member states who were urged to convene a stakeholders meeting to discuss the proposed changes and endorse them. Gender ministers adopted the Protocol with most of the recommended changes. The AU presented it to the Executive Council for endorsement and submission to the Heads of State for adoption on July 11, 2003 in Maputo.

AWID: SOAWR was established to achieve universal ratification of the Protocol and ensure its implementation. What have your achievements been and what challenges are you facing?

FJM: SOAWR, a coalition of 39 members, has focused on three goals: ratification, popularization and advocating for domestication and implementation of the Protocol. The Protocol made history by entering into force in the shortest time in the OAU/AU history. To date we have secured 31 ratifications (58.5% of AU member states); and we have, through multiple channels, made the Protocol widely known in the continent.

SOAWR members have convened educational forums, debates, generated materials including an award winning radio drama “Crossroads” that was translated into several local languages and released through community and national radios. Additionally, strong coalitions spearheaded by SOAWR members have emerged at country level, which is very important, as we need a strong and united force pushing for change in country.

More recently SOAWR has reached out to the African youth and offered them a platform to share their views on what the Protocol means to them. It is important to have the youth involved in the campaign and we have been exploring ways to sustain their interest and influence their active participation.

A key challenge is influential religious and traditional leaders who use religion and culture to compromise the human rights of women. For example, Liberia and Mali are obliged under Article 5 of the Protocol to enact laws that criminalize FGM but due to pressure by religious and traditional leaders they have, to-date, failed to honour this obligation. Article 14 on reproductive health rights is another sensitive issue with religious leaders and has resulted in Kenya and Uganda entering reservations against some sub-articles of this Article while some other countries have delayed ratification. Other countries have issue with 18 years being the minimum age of marriage even though all countries have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

AWID: How has the Protocol been domesticated in countries that have ratified it?

FJM: The Protocol requires state parties to review their domestic laws and ensure that they are aligned with its provisions. To the best of my knowledge only Rwanda has completed such a review. We are seeing improvements in some areas and in some countries: maternal health, criminalizing sexual offences, ending discrimination against women and increased numbers of women in decision-making positions. Gambia has passed a women’s Bill as a way of domesticating the Protocol, but failed to embrace it in its entirety; the bill does not address FGM for example, which is a widespread violation in Gambia. A similar bill is in the Nigerian Parliament for potential adoption while other countries have passed laws on specific issues including gender parity (Senegal), domestic violence (Mozambique and Uganda), FGM (Guinea Bissau and Uganda).