I: Campaign update: What’s happening around the continent?
- Based on a recent update compiled by Equality Now
Status of signatures and ratifications
Total signatures – 33
Total ratifications – 7
Upcoming Events
The Executive Council Session of the African Union will take place in Abuja on 28-29 January 2005.
The 4th African Union Ordinary Summit - will take place 30/31 January in Abuja (Nigeria).
Pre-Summit on Gender will be held in Abuja during 25-26 January 2005
Members of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOWR) Coalition will have a consultation meeting on 26th January in Abuja and ask lobbying strategies and share campaign updates.
Conference on FGM in Djibouti - No Peace Without Justice, in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Djibouti, will be hosting a conference during 2-3 February 2005 in Djibouti. The conference will discuss the Protocol on the Rights of Women with a view to advocating for its ratification and generate strategies for implementation.
“Engendering African Politics” Conference, April 2005, Addis Ababa.
The African Association of Political Science is sponsoring a conference to bring together policy makers and activists to develop and debate recommendations for strengthening a women’s rights platform across Africa.
“When Women Gain, So Does the World” Conference, June 19-21, Washington, DC.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research will host the Eighth International Women’s Policy Research Conference. The conference will cover topics such as ‘family, culture, and population’, women’s leadership in public life, and women’s rights to health and income security. For more information visit www.iwpr.org
Latest Country Updates
Benin
The WiLDAF West Africa Office reported that on January 6, the National Assembly of Benin unanimously approved a law that authorized ratification of the Protocol. Although the official instrument of ratification must still be deposited with the African Union in order to take effect, the passage of No 2005-04 signals a willingness on the part of the Assembly to make the Protocol a reality for Beninese women.
Djibouti
FRENCH: Décembre 2004 : conduite d’une pétition dans le cadre des 16 jours d’activisme
- Support explicatif du protocole : document « présentation du protocole de Maputo au regard de la législation djiboutienne » établi par Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali
- Militantes chargées de la collecte de signatures de divers horizons
- Approche d’une large frange de la population djiboutienne : parlementaires, juges, personnel des Nations Unies, travailleurs du secteur public, personnel du secteur bancaire, ports et zones franches, travailleurs du secteur privé
- Collecte de 383 signatures
Janvier 2005 : participation de Mme Zeinab KAMIL ALI au colloque « Femmes et citoyenneté » organisé par une association djiboutienne SOLIDARTE FEMININE
- 1ère journée 17 janvier 2005 : intervention de Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali sur le thème des droits des femmes en Afrique
- Intervention axée sur une présentation du Protocole de Maputo et un fervent plaidoyer pour sa ratification par Djibouti
- Sensibilisation de femmes parlementaires, de la société civile, avocats, juges et représentants diplomatiques de l’ambassade américaine, représentant de la banque mondiale dans le cadre de ce colloque
ENGLISH: In December 2004, the National Union of Djiboutian Women, working as member of the coalition “Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR)”, collected
383 signatures on a petition to the Heads of States calling for ratification
of the Maputo Protocol. Those signing the petition reflected a large section
of the Djiboutian population, including judges, United Nations personnel,
public sector workers, and private sector workers. Also in December, Zeinab
Kamil published an article titled “Presentation of the Maputo Protocol With
Regard to the Djiboutian Legislation.”
In January 2005 Zeinab Kamil participated in a symposium titled “Women and
Citizenship” organized by a Djiboutian association, Female Solidarity. She
made a presentation on women’s rights in Africa and emphasized the need for
ratification of the Maputo Protocol in Djibouti.
UNFD is continuing with its campaign and anticipates that the Djibouti
government will soon be discussing the ratification of the Protocol.
Guinea
The Guinean Parliament has ratified the Protocol and the government has indicated that it is in the process of forwarding the ratification to the African Union. Campaign focus is moving to domestication of the Protocol.
Kenya
The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) is continuing with the lobbying of the Kenyan government to ratify the Protocol.
Mozambique
Due to the recent election, much of the lobbying work of the FDC (Foundation for Community Development) has been at a stand still. However, the government has promised to put the Protocol on the agenda of the First Session of Parliament. The FDC will continue its campaigning work to ensure that this happens and that the Protocol receives a fair and full discussion. Congratulations to Mozambique for the appointment of a female Prime Minister who also holds the position of Finance Minister!
Namibia
Sister Namibia is continuing campaigns to popularize the Protocol in the country. Naimbia was the 4th country to ratify the Protocol.
Nigeria
Nigeria ratified the Protocol and activists are now focusing on domestication and implementation.
South Africa
The South African Parliament ratified the Protocol in December 2004 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since deposited the instrument of ratification to the African Union.
Uganda
Progress on the Protocol has been slow in the Uganda. Akina Mama wa Afrika attributed this to the election campaigning and the fact that Ugandan women activists are focusing their energies on the Domestic Relations Bill, currently in the house, to ensure that this new family law bill will protect women’s rights. Despite these intervening events, the Ministry of Gender has prepared a cabinet brief on the Protocol which Akina Mama wa Afrika will use to lobby other members of government.
News Brief 1 – How to speed up ratifications to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa? This was the central question of a session at the recently-concluded 36th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights co-chaired by Equality Now Programme Officer Caroline Osero-Ageng’o and the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights Commissioner Angela Melo.
Commissioner Melo noted that she had been in contact with various NGOs and 48 ministries of foreign affairs as well as 45 officials that are working with these ministers. She has also been in contact with Mrs. Mongella, the Speaker of the Pan African Parliament. She said that the problem of lack of translation into Portuguese was slowing work amongst the Lusophone countries and noted that there was need to support the Special Rapporteur in her work for the ratification of the Protocol.
Together with the participants they explored strategies of attaining ratification and came up with the following suggestions:
- translate the Protocol into national languages and disseminate it at national levels in all countries,
- undertake an audit of ratification of the CEDAW and discuss the experiences in different countries, including whether it has been translated into national laws, with a view to replicating successful strategies,
- create awareness on the Protocol – meet religious associations and lobby parliamentarians with a view to building a strong constituency of support for ratification, and ensure coordination so as to reduce the expenses on the campaign, and
- engage men in the campaign on women’s rights issues.
News brief 2 - Mary Wandia (FEMNET), Hannah Forster (ACDHRS), Kafui KUWONU (WiLDAF) and Faiza Mohamed (Equality Now) attended a consultation on Human Rights that was organized by the Political Affairs Division of the African Union, with support from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and held at the African Union conference center in Addis Ababa from 9-10 December 2004.
They used this opportunity to brief participants, who were from all regions of Africa and the Diaspora and working on human rights, media, youth, community development, corruption, capacity building and peace building, about the campaign and urged them to add their signatures to the petition; and included a call for a speedy ratification of the Protocol in the communiqué that was generated at the conclusion of the consultation meeting.
The African Union declared the week of 6th –13th December 2004 as a treaties week whereby member states were called upon to ratify pending Protocols. Unfortunately, the Protocol on Women’s Rights only received 2 additional signatures – Chad and Swaziland – but no ratifications.
Text Now 4 Women’s Rights campaign and Petition signatures
This component to the campaign aimed at recruiting mobile users in Africa to support the online petition currently running at the Pambazuka website has continued. There are currently 3935 signatories to the petition, about 500 of which have been received by SMS. Signatories have been received from 111 countries. This breaks down into 43 African countries and 68 countries from outside of Africa. 'Block votes' numbering several thousand have also been received from membership organisations, but these have yet to be tabulated.
There are now over 500 people who have signed up for free SMS alerts about the campaign. If you haven't registered for this service, visit http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/alerts.php