Source: allAfrica                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Africa will celebrate on 31 July the African Women's Day, which was declared by the African Union after the first Pan-African Women's Conference in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1962.

This important date honours the achievements of all African women, and offers a space to reflect on progress towards the recognition of women's rights and gender equality at the political, economic and social level in all the countries of Africa.

African governments have signed several commitments for the promotion of women's rights in the last few years, from the adoption in 2004 of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa by the heads of state of the African Union, to the enforcement of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (also known as Maputo Protocol).

However, two years into the Decade of African Women (launched by the African Union) most of these commitments haven't been translated in real improvements for African women. Women across Africa continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination, sexual and domestic violence, lack of access to education, employment opportunities and economic resources, and poor access to reproductive healthcare.

In terms of women's participation in decision-making, today in Sub-Saharan Africa women occupy an average of 19% of seats in national parliaments, marking an increase from 9.8 % in 2005, but still not enough by any standard of equality. Women's political under-representation at the national and local level means that their voices are missing in the forums where policies that affect their lives are shaped.

In many countries women who hold leadership positions still face significant barriers and intimidation in a male dominated political and cultural environment, so that their elections rarely translate into the shift in power relations that is necessary to achieve gender equality.

In Angola, women are playing very important role in the society, including in the government and family.

So, it is considered indispensable for the state to continue supporting the importance of the women's social role or the ones that infringe their individual and collective rights, creating the conditions of their protection.

• Angola