The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and National Legal Strategies
The implementation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa will inevitably involve legal strategies. Prior even to its legal implementation, however, is the requirement that the treaty be broadly known by all spheres of society.
In regards to legal strategies, one of the most primary conditions for its implementation will be the harmonisation of national legislation with the treaty. By signing on to the Protocol, countries are bound to the African Charter, and must adopt specific legal measures. The initiative to harmonize the protocol should come from the state, but in the case that the government is slow to respond, there is nothing stopping civil society organizations from taking the lead. While there is no single model for procedural steps to harmonization, a potentially useful tool would be the organization of a convention.
Calling together all those parties interested in the implementation – senior staff from appropriate ministries, magistrates, advocates, police staff, parliamentarians, professors, researchers, women’s rights activists and the media – the end goal could potentially be a draft implementation law. Not only could this involve the key players, but it could also act as a source of information dissemination if given adequate media coverage. Leading up to the ratification and consequent implementation, however, women’s rights activists in Africa should be prepared for close cooperation with the political and administrative structures concerned, and should also be familiar with the processes and methods by which their work is done.
Under the African Charter, there is a requirement for member states to present, every two years, to the African Commission on the status of implementation of newly ratified protocols. Reviews of these reports are carried out not only by the African Commission, but also by NGOs, specifically those that have observer status at the regional body. Areas of concern can be identified and recommendations can thus be made.
Litigation is perhaps the most delicate strategy in the implementation of the Protocol, as it has the capacity to work both for and against women’s rights, especially in the climate of the African Commission, which has, after sixteen years of existence, never examined a case relating to a women’s rights violation. “The effectiveness of women’s rights protection will pass by the establishment of strategic litigation but which require, at national level, that certain conditions be satisfied regarding environment and the attitude of the judge on the one hand, and, on the other hand, vigorous training of human rights activists (men and women) and of those responsible for human rights organisations on the issue.” Modules related to the training of magistrates and human rights activists will be necessary, as will the need to ensure the regular publication and popularization of the convention’s ratification.
The ratification of the Protocol is simply the first step in a difficult and lengthy process, and will mean nothing without its proper and prompt implementation. To quote the report’s conclusion at length: ““Do not ask me if the legislation of a given country is good. Rather ask me if the laws in force are applied”. This saying must be . . . the leitmotif of all those who fight for the effective respect of women’s rights in Africa. Now that we have at our disposal one of the most revolutionary treaties regarding the protection of women’s rights, our fight must be to do everything possible so that it may start being implemented in the states, which have ratified it. It is at that cost that human rights will be actually the rights of “human beings” that is, “those assumptions that every human being has the right to enjoy the fact of their humanity” and that they will contribute to creating a united, an integrated, a justice – oriented Africa, an Africa of peace, of political, economic, social and cultural integration, which gives back to Panafricanism its full meaning” and composed of “democratic states that are respectful of human rights and ones concerned by the building of balanced societies.””
* This is a summarised version of a paper presented at a conference on the Ratification and Domestication of The African Union Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on Rights of Women in Africa. The conference, held between 27-30 September in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was co-convened by the African Union Commission and the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR). The full length versions of all papers presented at the conference will be released in book form in January 2006.
* Summarized by Karoline Kemp, Commonwealth of Learning Young Professionals Intern, Fahamu
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