Djibouti s’engage vers la voie très prochaine d’une ratification du Protocole de Maputo relatif aux droits des femmes en Afrique

[English translation follows]

L’Union Nationale des Femmes Djiboutiennes , membre du Mouvement de Solidarité pour les Droits des Femmes en Afrique mène depuis juillet 2004 des actions de plaidoyer en faveur de la ratification par la République de Djibouti du protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.

Grâce à l’engagement de la première dame de Djibouti, présidente de l’UNFD, Madame Kadra Mahamoud Haid, la société civile djiboutienne se mobilise en faveur de la ratification du protocole de Maputo.

Par le moyen de pétitions, une large frange de la population djiboutienne composée de parlementaires, de juges, de personnes opérant dans les secteurs public et privé demeure aujourd’hui avisée de l’existence de cette convention africaine promouvant les droits des femmes en Afrique.

En juin 2004, une pétition a , en un temps record de 48 heures, recueilli 270 signatures.
Les médias djiboutiens n’ont pas manqué à leur tour de souligner les actions de plaidoyer menées par l’UNFD ; Saisissant l’occasion de la conférence des Chefs d’Etats de l’Union Africaine réunis en juillet 2004 à Addis-Abeba, l’UNFD a adressé, par la voie de communiqués de presse à la Radio télévision de Djibouti dans les quatre langues nationales arabe, afar , somali et français, des messages à la population djiboutienne en vue de l’informer de l’existence du protocole de Maputo, convention avant-gardiste dans la protection des femmes djiboutiennes et a fortiori des femmes africaines.

La stratégie informative de l’UNFD s’est poursuivie par l’engagement officiel de la première dame de Djibouti en faveur de la ratification par Djibouti du protocole de Maputo et ce par le voie d’une interview conduite par le journal « la Nation ».

L’UNFD, connue depuis les premiers jours de l’indépendance de la République de Djibouti pour son fervent combat en faveur des droits des femmes djiboutiennes, démontre ses capacités mobilisatrices, portant cette fois le flambeau de la cause des femmes de tout le continent africain.

En décembre 2004, dans le cadre des 16 jours d’activisme, 383 signatures ont été collectées par le support d’une pétition.

Par ailleurs, les militantes de l’UNFD ne relâchent pas leurs efforts de sensibilisation ; Ainsi, au cours d’un colloque « Femmes et Citoyenneté à Djibouti »organisé par l’association djiboutienne dénommée Solidarité Féminine qui s’est tenu le 17 et 18 janvier 2005, Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali a présenté, devant une large auditoire composé de personnalités issues d’horizons divers, les disposition méritoires du protocole de Maputo, la genèse du texte ainsi qu’une analyse comparative du protocole avec la législation djiboutienne.

Réaffirmant les atouts du protocole de Maputo, convention caractérisée par son pragmatisme, sa connaissance de la réalité des femmes africaines et sa volonté de conciliation des différentes acceptions juridiques de la protection des droits de la femme africaine, cette militante a clôturé son plaidoyer sur l’indispensable texte de référence que constituera, dès sa ratification, le protocole de Maputo pour les besoins de toute réforme de la législation djiboutienne relatif aux droits des femmes.

Fort de cette effervescence de la société civile djiboutienne, il semblerait que le Gouvernement de la République de Djibouti par l’entremise de Mme Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Ministre déléguée à la promotion de la femme a déjà inscrit, sur son agenda, l’adoption en conseil des ministres du projet de loi portant ratification du protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.

[TRANSLATION]
Since July 2004 the National Union of Djiboutian Women (UNFD), member of the Solidarity Movement for Women’s Rights in Africa, has been carrying out lobbying activities promoting ratification by the Djibouti Republic of the protocol relating to women’s rights in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Thanks to the involvement of Kadra Mahamoud Haid, first lady of Djibouti and President of UNFD, Djibouti civil society is mobilising in favour of ratifying the protocol.

A wide sector of the Djibouti population including members of parliament, judges and public and private sector workers is now aware of the existence of this African convention promoting women’s rights in Africa.

One petition in June 2004 raised 270 signatures in a record 48 hours. Nor did the Djibouti media miss their opportunity to highlight the UNFD lobbying actions: UNFD seized the opportunity of the African Union Heads of State meeting in Addis Ababa in July 2004 to prepare press communiqués for RTD (Djibouti Radio Television station) in the four national languages of Arabic, Afar, Somali and French informing the people of Djibouti of the existence of the Maputo protocol, a progressive convention in the vanguard of protecting Djiboutian women and indeed all African women.

The UNFD information strategy continued with the first lady of Djibouti’s official support for ratification of the Maputo protocol by Djibouti in an interview published in Djibouti’s ‘La Nation’ newspaper.

UNFD, known since the early days of the Djibouti Republic’s independence for its ardent fight for the rights of Djiboutian women, has demonstrated its ability to mobilise support, this time carrying the torch for women’s rights over the whole African continent.

In December 2004 during a 16-day action period, 383 signatures were collected with the help of a petition.

And UNFD activists have not been slackening their awareness-raising efforts since then: at a symposium from 17 to 18 January on ‘Women and Citizenship in Djibouti’ organised by the Djibouti association Women’s Solidarity, Mrs Zeinab Kamil Ali made a presentation to an audience of people from a variety of backgrounds on the positive measures in the Maputo protocol and how the text was arrived at, as well as a comparative analysis of the protocol with Djibouti legislation.

Activist Mrs Ali reaffirmed the key points in the Maputo protocol, describing it as a convention characterised by its pragmatism, its awareness of the reality of African women and its willingness to reconcile the differing juridical readings of the protection of African women’s rights. She brought her advocacy to a close, highlighting how indispensable a reference text the Maputo protocol once ratified will be for the purpose of any reform of the Djibouti legislature relating to women’s rights.

It now appears that through the intervention of Mrs Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Minister in charge of women’s advancement, the Government of the Djibouti Republic has already put the adoption of the draft law on the council of ministers’ schedule, bringing closer the ratification of the protocol.

[our thanks to Clare Smedley for providing this translation]
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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

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

Certains grands évènements de la vie passent inaperçus par l’intelligence humaine au moment de leur accomplissement. Et il faut généralement attendre l’analyse précieuse des historiens , quelques décennies plus tard, pour enfin leur accorder le qualificatif « d’historiques ».
On dit souvent très machinalement que « l’histoire se répète » , sans se soucier des enseignements à tirer d’une telle assertion.
Faut-t-il donc attendre la fin d’un siècle pour reconnaître au protocole africain sur les droits des femmes la valeur historique qui lui revient ?