The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol, is an

international human rights instrument International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general. There are many varying types, but most can be clas ...

established by the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of member states of the African Union, 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling fo ...

that went into effect in 2005. It guarantees comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political equality with men, improved autonomy in their

reproductive health Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, healthcare, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual wellbeing during all stages of their life. The term can also be further de ...

decisions, and an end to

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

. It was adopted by the African Union in

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,08 ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

, in 2003 in the form of a protocol to the

African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent. It emerged under th ...

(adopted in 1981, enacted in 1986).

History

Origins

Following on from recognition that women's rights were often marginalised in the context of human rights, a meeting organised by

Women in Law and Development in Africa A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as " women's rights" to denote female humans rega ...

(WiLDAF) in March 1995, in

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

, Togo, called for the development of a specific protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights to address the rights of women. The OAU assembly mandated the

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples') rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Char ...

(ACHPR) to develop such a protocol at its 31st Ordinary Session in June 1995, in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, ...

.Rights of Women in Africa: Launch of a Petition to the African Union
, Mary Wandia,

Pambazuka News ''Pambazuka News'' is an open access, Pan-African e-mail and online electronic newsletter. It is published weekly in English, Portuguese and French by the not-for-profit organisation Fahamu. The word ''Pambazuka'' means "dawn" or "arise" in Kis ...

162; 24 June 2004, republished in "African Voices on Development and Social Justice ''Editorial from Pambazuka News 2004''" by Firoze Manji (Ed.) and Patrick Burnett (Ed.), Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Tanzania, A first draft produced by an expert group of members of the ACHPR, representatives of African NGOs and international observers, organised by the ACHPR in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists, was submitted to the ACHPR at its 22nd Session in October 1997, and circulated for comments to other NGOs. Revision in co-operation with involved NGOs took place at different sessions from October to January, and in April 1998, the 23rd session of the ACHPR endorsed the appointment of Julienne Ondziel Gnelenga, a Congolese lawyer, as the first Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa, mandating her to work towards the adoption of the draft protocol on women's rights. The OAU Secretariat received the completed draft in 1999, and in 2000 at

it was merged with the Draft Convention on Traditional Practices in a joint session of the Inter African Committee and the ACHPR. After further work at experts meetings and conferences during 2001, the process stalled and the protocol was not presented at the inaugural summit of the AU in 2002. In early 2003,

Equality Now Equality Now is a non-governmental organization founded in 1992 to advocate for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and girls. Through a combination of regional partnerships, community mobilization and legal advocacy the or ...

hosted a conference of women's groups, to organise a campaign to lobby the

to adopt the protocol, and the protocol's text was brought up to international standards. The lobbying was successful, the African Union resumed the process and the finished document was officially adopted by the section summit of the African Union, on 11 July 2003.

Reservations

At the Maputo Summit, several countries expressed reservations. Tunisia, Sudan, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa recorded reservations about some of the marriage clauses. Egypt, Libya, Sudan, South Africa and Zambia had reservations about "judicial separation, divorce and annulment of marriage". Burundi, Senegal, Sudan, Rwanda and Libya held reservations with Article 14, relating to the " right to health and control of reproduction". Libya expressed reservations about a point relating to conflicts.''AU Executive Council endorses protocol on women's rights'', Panafrican News Agency (PANA) Daily Newswire, 7 September 2003

Ratification process

The protocol was adopted by the

on 11 July 2003 at its second summit in

, Mozambique. On 25 November 2005, having been ratified by the required 15 member nations of the African Union, the protocol entered into force. As of July 2019, out of the 55 member countries in the African Union, 49 have signed the protocol and 42 have ratified and deposited the protocol. The AU states that have neither signed nor ratified the Protocol yet are Botswana, Egypt, and Morocco. The states that have signed but not yet ratified are Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Madagascar, Niger, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.

Articles

The main articles are: * Article 2: Elimination of Discrimination Against Women * Article 3: Right to Dignity * Article 4: The Rights to Life, Integrity and Security of the Person * Article 5: Elimination of Harmful Practices ** This refers to

and other traditional practices that are harmful to women. * Article 6: Marriage * Article 7: Separation, Divorce and Annulment of Marriage * Article 8: Access to Justice and Equal Protection before the Law * Article 9: Right to Participation in the Political and Decision-Making Process * Article 10: Right to Peace * Article 11: Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts * Article 12: Right to Education and Training * Article 13: Economic and Social Welfare Rights * Article 14: Health and Reproductive Rights * Article 15: Right to Food Security * Article 16: Right to Adequate Housing * Article 17: Right to Positive Cultural Context * Article 18: Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment * Article 19: Right to Sustainable Development * Article 20: Widows' Rights * Article 21: Right to Inheritance * Article 22: Special Protection of Elderly Women * Article 23: Special Protection of Women with Disabilities * Article 24: Special Protection of Women in Distress * Article 25: Remedies

Opposition

There are two particularly contentious factors driving opposition to the Protocol: its article on reproductive health, which is opposed mainly by Catholics and other Christians, and its articles on female genital mutilation, polygamous marriage and other traditional practices, which are opposed mainly by

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abra ...

Christian opposition

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

described the reproductive rights granted to women in the Protocol in 2007 as "an attempt to trivialize abortion surreptitiously". The Roman Catholic bishops of Africa oppose the Maputo Protocol because it defines abortion as a human right. The US-based

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respo ...

organisation, Human Life International, describes it as "a Trojan horse for a radical agenda". In Uganda, the powerful Joint Christian Council opposed efforts to ratify the treaty on the grounds that Article 14, in guaranteeing abortion "in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus," is incompatible with traditional Christian morality. In an open letter to the government and people of Uganda in January 2006, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Uganda set out their opposition to the ratification of the Maputo Protocol. It was nevertheless ratified on 22 July 2010.

Muslim opposition

In Niger, the Parliament voted 42 to 31, with 4 abstentions, against ratifying it in June 2006; in this Muslim-majority country, several traditions banned or deprecated by the Protocol are common. Nigerien Muslim women's groups in 2009 gathered in Niamey to protest what they called "the satanic Maputo protocols", specifying limits to marriage age of girls and abortion as objectionable. In Djibouti, however, the Protocol was ratified in February 2005 after a subregional conference on female genital mutilation called by the Djibouti government and No Peace Without Justice, at which the Djibouti Declaration on female genital mutilation was adopted. The document declares that the Koran does not support female genital mutilation, and on the contrary practising genital mutilation on women goes against the precepts of Islam.Second Thematic Session Third Report – Le Protocole de Maputo
, French, recording announcement of the Djibouti government's imminent intention to ratify the Maputo Protocol, No Peace Without Justice, 2 February 2005

References

External links

Treaties and protocols of the African Union
– African Union official website
The Maputo Protocol in the news
stopfgmc.org, the website of the International Campaign for the Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation
Page on the protocol
at the official ACHPR website. * {{Authority control African Union treaties Women's rights in Africa Treaties concluded in 2003 Treaties entered into force in 2005 Women's rights instruments Treaties of Angola Treaties of Benin Treaties of Burkina Faso Treaties of Cameroon Treaties of Cape Verde Treaties of the Comoros Treaties of the Republic of the Congo Treaties of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Treaties of Djibouti Treaties of Ivory Coast Treaties of Equatorial Guinea Treaties of Gabon Treaties of the Gambia Treaties of Ghana Treaties of Guinea Treaties of Guinea-Bissau Treaties of Kenya Treaties of Lesotho Treaties of Liberia Treaties of Libya Treaties of Malawi Treaties of Mali Treaties of Mauritania Treaties of Mozambique Treaties of Namibia Treaties of Nigeria Treaties of Rwanda Treaties of Senegal Treaties of Seychelles Treaties of Sierra Leone Treaties of South Africa Treaties of Eswatini Treaties of Tanzania Treaties of Togo Treaties of Uganda Treaties of Zambia Treaties of Zimbabwe 2003 in Mozambique 2003 in women's history