Calls for 14 African countries to ratify the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women and Girls gathered momentum at the African Union headquarters, with the AU organs, the African Union Commission chairperson and 41 member states urging their peers to expeditiously ratify the instrument.
During the meeting, it emerged that Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Madagascar, Niger, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan, Somalia and Sudan had signed but not ratified the Protocol, while Botswana, Egypt and Morocco were found to be lagging behind as they had neither signed nor ratified the Protocol, despite the 2020 deadline.
The Protocol, which was adopted by the AU 15 years ago, seeks to protect women and girls from legal and social violations of their rights and fundamental freedoms that remain widespread across the continent.
The meeting adopted a new initiative by the AU dubbed "All for Maputo Protocol" that seeks to accelerate signing, ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol. It will include in-country Advocacy Missions to Member States that are yet to ratify the Protocol. This will help provide understanding of the challenges that these countries are facing in ratifying the instrument and identify opportunities to facilitate ratification.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Ghanaian President and AU Leader on Gender and Development in Africa Nana Akufo-Addo lauded Ethiopia and Rwanda for their role in enhancing women participation in decision making and political processes. He observed that Rwanda had become the world’s reference point in as far as women’s representation was concerned. “I commit to ensuring that the African Union Commission becomes a role model for women rights and empowerment,” he said.
Kenya has already signed and ratified the Maputo Protocol.
Recently, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori said Kenya should lift its reservations on Article 14 (2) (c) of the protocol and allow abused women to undergo abortions.
The Maputo Protocol states that governments must put in place mechanisms to procure abortions for women impregnated through sexual assault, rape or incest.
At the Addis meeting, AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat reiterated his support towards gender equality and pledged to be a role model and champion for the Protocol, calling on the remaining states to ratify the Protocol.
On her part, Faiza Mohamed, Africa Director of international women's rights organisation Equality Now, explained that while some advancements had been made in the promotion of the rights of women and girls in Africa, more remains to be done in order to realise the aspirations of the Protocol.
Mohamed pointed out that although African nations were obliged to fully uphold the rights of women and girls, accounts of sexual and gender based violence, sexual exploitation, harmful cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and “early child” marriages, systemic inequalities and lack of access to reproductive services and healthcare continue to take place. She observed that the universal ratification of the Protocol would go a long way in holding governments to account for these wrongs.
She said: “Every day, girls as young as seven are robbed off their childhood through the harmful and continuous practice that Female Genital Mutilation remains. Our daughters are forced to become wives and mothers while they are still children. Africa has been synonymous with horrific stories and it is time to put a stop to this narrative. It is good that we have committed ourselves on paper but now we must move past the rhetoric and begin to collectively action our promises.”
The Maputo Protocol was adopted in 2003 as an African regional treaty affirming women’s rights to exercise self-determination and bodily autonomy; free of discrimination, coercion and violence. It explicitly draws from and builds upon existing United Nations international human rights law and authoritative guidance, while contextualizing it to women in Africa.
