AU Protocol on Women Enters Into Force

Refugee Rights News
Volume 2, Issue 4
November 2005

On October 26, Togo ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. It was a momentous occasion, not only for women in Togo, but throughout the continent. With Togo’s ratification, the Protocol has acquired the requisite 15 ratifications, (The previous ratifications of the Protocol had been made by Benin, Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, the Gambia, Libya, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa.) and it will now enter into force 30 days from the date of that Togo’s instrument of accession is deposited with the AU.

Advocates for the rights of women can now point to a new binding instrument for their protection. Refugee advocates should be aware that not only does the Protocol offer some very progressive rights protections, it also provides specifically for refugee women.

What is new in the Protocol?

One area in which the Protocol includes particularly strong protections is the in field of sexual and reproductive rights. The Protocol contains the first explicit prohibition of female genital mutilation in international law as well as specific provisions relating to women’s right to health.

For example, where the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) only provides that states take measures to ensure that women are able to access health care services, “including those related to family planning” on a basis of equality, the Protocol spells out women’s rights in much more detail. TheProtocol refers specifically to women’s “right to control their fertility” and “to use any method of contraception” and to abortion in cases where pregnancy is the result of rape.

Displaced Women and the Protocol

The particular needs and capacities of displaced women are also recognized in the Protocol. The Protocol for example, recognizes the right of women to be involved in promoting peace, specifically recognizing the capacities of women in this area. The Protocol also calls on states to take particular measures to ensure that internally displaced women are protected. Although those rights have already been recognized in other instruments, the Protocol provides recognition of the special needs of women in this area.

The Protocol also recognizes the capacity of women to craft solutions to displacement, requiring that states “take all appropriate measures” to involve women at both national and international level in crafting responses to displacement and protecting refugees. The Protocol also encourages the involvement of women in structures “for the management of camps and asylum areas.” While the importance of women has long been recognized by many actors, including UNHCR, as crucial to ensuring the protection of women, it is too often not implemented in practice. The recognition provided in the Protocol provides an additional weapon in the arsenal of advocates fighting to make such representation a reality.

Implementing the Protocol

As with any instrument, the key to using the Protocol effectively is to ensure that it is implemented on the local, regional, and national levels. The entry into force of the Protocol is, in many ways, a tribute to the hard work of advocates across the continent, many of them working in unison through the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights, a coalition devoted to promoting the protocol coordinated by Equality Now.

There is even greater work for advocates ahead. Not only have most African countries still not ratified the protocol, there is still a long way to go in ensuring that its provisions are enforced in those countries that have ratified. Much of the focus of the next stage of activism will undoubtedly focus on adoption of appropriate national implementing legislation and advocacy with national governments to ensure that they abide by their new commitments.

It may also be useful to note that some monitoring and implementation mechanisms are built into the convention. States are required to report on their efforts to ensure implementation of the Convention to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights as part of their regular reporting duties. Experience has shown that the involvement of NGOs and coalitions of NGOs can make this type of review process more effective. The Protocol also refers questions regarding implementation to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Because the Court is not yet functioning, it is difficult to gauge the potential of the Court to encourage better compliance with the new Protocol.

The struggle for equality for African women has a long way to go, but the entry into force of the Protocol is a milestone. The challenge now is to figure out how to use the tool now to the best possible effect.