Adopted by the African Union on 11 July 2003

Entry into force: 25 November 2005

The State Parties to this Protocol,

CONSIDERING that Article 66 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides for special protocols or agreements, if necessary, to supplement the provisions of the African Charter, and that the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government meeting in its Thirty-first Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995, endorsed by resolution AHG/Res.240 (XXXI) the recommendation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to elaborate a Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa;

CONSIDERING that Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights enshrines the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status;

FURTHER CONSIDERING that Article 18 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights calls on all Member States to eliminate every discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights of women as stipulated in international declarations and conventions;

NOTING that Articles 60 and 61 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognise regional and international human rights instruments and African practices consistent with international norms on human and peoples’ rights as being important reference points for the application and interpretation of the African Charter;

RECALLING that women’s rights have been recognised and guaranteed in all international human rights instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and all other international conventions and covenants relating to the rights of women as being inalienable, interdependent and indivisible human rights;

NOTING that women’s rights and women’s essential role in development have been reaffirmed in the United Nations Plans of Action on the Environment and Development in 1992, on Human Rights in 1993, on Population and Development in 1994 and on Social Development in 1995;

FURTHER NOTING that the Plans of Action adopted in Dakar and in Beijing call on all Member States of the United Nations, which have made a solemn commitment to implement them, to take concrete steps to give greater attention to the human rights of women in order to eliminate all forms of discrimination and of gender-based violence against women;

BEARING IN MIND related Resolutions, Declarations, Recommendations, Decisions and other Conventions aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination and at promoting equality between men and women;
 
CONCERNED that despite the ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international human rights instruments by the majority of Member States, and their solemn commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination and harmful practices against women, women in Africa still continue to be victims of discrimination and harmful practices;

FIRMLY CONVINCED that any practice that hinders or endangers the normal growth and affects the physical, emotional and psychological development of women and girls should be condemned and eliminated, and DETERMINED to ensure that the rights of women are protected in order to enable them to enjoy fully all their human rights;

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1-Definitions

For the purpose of the present Protocol

a) "African Charter" shall mean the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; 

b) “African Commission” shall mean the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights;

c) “Assembly” shall mean the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU;

d) “Discrimination against women” shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction based on sex, or any differential treatment whose objective or effects compromise or destroy the recognition, enjoyment or the exercise by women, regardless of their marital status, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in all spheres of life.

e) “Harmful Practices (HPs)” shall mean all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such as their right to life, health and bodily integrity.

f) “OAU” shall mean the Organization of African Unity.

g) “State Parties” shall mean the State Parties to this Protocol.

h) “Violence against women” shall mean all acts directed against women which cause or could cause them physical, sexual, or psychological harm, including the threat of such acts; or the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peace time and during situations of conflict/war.

Article 2-Elimination of Discrimination against Women

1. State Parties shall combat all forms of discrimination against women through appropriate legislative measures. In this regard they shall:

a) include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments the principle of equality between men and women and ensure its effective application;

b) enact and effectively implement appropriate national legislative measures to prohibit all forms of harmful practices which endanger the health and general well-being of women and girls;

c) integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans, activities and all other spheres of life;

d) take positive action in those areas where discrimination against women in law and in fact continues to exist.

2. State Parties shall modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women through specific actions, such as:

a) public education, with a view to achieving the elimination of harmful cultural and traditional practices and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes, or on stereotyped roles for men and women;

b) support local, national, regional and continental initiatives directed at eradicating all forms of discrimination against women.

Article 3-Respect for Dignity

Women contribute to the preservation of those African values that are based on the principles of equality, dignity, justice and democracy. In this regard, the State Parties shall:

a) ensure that women enjoy rights and dignity inherent in all human beings;

b) adopt appropriate measures to prohibit any exploitation and degradation of women.

Article 4-Right to Physical and Emotional Security

Women shall be entitled to respect of their lives and the integrity of their person. Accordingly, the State Parties shall:

a) not pronounce or carry out death sentences on pregnant women;

b) prohibit medical or scientific experiments on women without their informed consent;

c) protect girls and women against rape and all other forms of violence, including the trafficking of girls and women;

d) ensure that in times of conflict and/or war, rape, sexual abuse and violence against girls and women are considered a war crime and are punished as such.

Article 5-Elimination of Violence against Women

State Parties shall take appropriate measures to: 

a) prohibit all forms of violence against women whether physical, mental, verbal or sexual, domestic and family, whether they take place in the private sphere or in society and public life;

b) identify the cause of violence against women and take appropriate measures to prevent and eliminate such acts of violence;

c) punish the perpetrators of such violence committed against women and ensure that the perpetrators pay adequate compensation;

d) establish mechanisms to ensure effective rehabilitation and reparation for victims of such violence.

Article 6-Elimination of Harmful Practices

State Parties shall condemn all harmful practices which affect the fundamental human rights of women and girls and which are contrary to recognised international standards, and undertake to take all the necessary measures, inter alia:

a) to create public awareness regarding harmful practices through information, formal and informal education, communication campaigns and outreach programmes targeting all stakeholders;

b) to prohibit the amelioration or preservation of harmful practices such as the medicalisation and para-medicalisation of female genital mutilation and scarification, in order to effect a total elimination of such practices;

c) to rehabilitate victims of harmful practices by providing them with social support services such as health services to meet their health-care needs, emotional and psychological counselling and skills training aimed at making them self-supporting in order to facilitate their re-integration into their families, communities and in other sectors of the society;

d) to protect and grant asylum to those women and girls who are at risk of, have been, or are being subjected to harmful practices and all other forms of intolerance.

Article 7-Marriage

State Parties shall ensure that man and women enjoy equal rights and are regarded as equal partners in marriage. They shall enact appropriate national legislative measures to ensure that:

a) no marriage shall take place without the informed consent of both parties;

b) the minimum age of marriage for men and women shall be 18 years;

c) polygamy shall be prohibited;

d) every marriage shall be recorded where possible in writing, as soon as possible, and registered in accordance with national laws, in order to be legally recognised;

e) the husband and wife shall by mutual agreement choose their place of residence;

f) a married woman shall have the right to keep her maiden name, to use it as she pleases, jointly or separately with her husband’s surname. By mutual agreement the children of a married couple may use their mother's maiden name either separately from or jointly with that of their father's;

g) a married woman shall have the right to retain or change her nationality;

h) a man and a woman shall have the same rights and responsibilities towards their children;      

i) during her marriage, the women shall have the right to acquire her own property and to administer and manage it freely; and in cases of joint ownership of property the husband and wife shall have the same rights.

Article 8-Separation and Termination of Marriage
 
State Parties shall enact appropriate national legislative measures to ensure that men and women enjoy the same rights in case of separation and termination of marriage. In this regard, they shall ensure that:

a) divorce and annulment of a marriage shall be effected only by judicial order;

b) women and men shall have the same rights to seek divorce or annulment of a marriage;

c) after divorce or annulment, women and men shall have the same rights and responsibilities with respect to the children and property of the marriage;

d) in the event of separation women and men shall have equal rights and responsibilities with respect to the children and property of the marriage.

Article 9-Right to Information and Legal Aid

Women shall have the right to have their cause heard and State Parties shall have the duty to promote and ensure that the rights of women are protected in this respect. They shall:

a) take all appropriate measures to facilitate the access of women to legal aid services;

b) Support local, national, regional and continental initiatives directed at giving women access to legal aid services;

c) Put in place adequate structures including appropriate education programmes to inform women and make them aware of their rights.

Article 10-Right to Participation in Political Process and Decision Making

1. State Parties shall take specific positive action to promote the equal participation of women in the political life of their scountries, ensuring that:

a) women do participate without any discrimination in all elections;

b) women are represented equally at all levels with men in all electoral and candidate lists;

c) women are partners with men at all levels of development and implementation of state policy;

2. State Parties shall ensure women's effective representation and participation at all levels of decision making.

Article 11-Right to Peace

1. Women shall have the right to participate in the promotion and maintenance of peace, and to live in a peaceful environment.
 
2. State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to involve women:

a) in programmes of education for peace and a culture of peace;

b) in the structures for conflict prevention, management and resolution at local, national, regional, continental and international levels;

c) in the local, national, sub-regional, regional, continental and international decision making structures to ensure physical, psychological, social and legal protection of refugee, returnee and displaced women;

d) in all levels of the structures established for the management of camps and asylum areas.

3.  State Parties additionally shall reduce military expenditure significantly in favour of spending on social development, while guaranteeing the effective participation of women in the distribution of these resources.

4.  State Parties shall take special measures to ensure:

a) effective protection of women and children in emergency and conflict situations;

b) effective protection of refugee, returnee and displaced women and children.

Article 12-Right to Education and Training

1. State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to:

a) eliminate all  forms of discrimination against women and girls in the sphere of education and training;

b) eliminate all references in textbooks and syllabuses to the stereotypes which perpetuate such discrimination;.

2. State Parties shall take specific positive action to:

a) increase literacy among women;

b) promote education and training for women and girls at all levels and in all disciplines;

c) promote the retention of girls in schools and other training institutions.

Article 13-Economic and Social Welfare Rights

State Parties shall guarantee women equal opportunities to work. In this respect, they shall:

a) promote equality in access to employment;

b) promote the right to equal remuneration for jobs of equal value for men and women;

c) ensure transparency in employment and dismissal relating to women in order to address issues of sexual harassment in the workplace;

d) allow women freedom to choose their occupation, and protect them from exploitation by their employers;

e) create conditions to promote and support the occupations and economic activities dominated by women, in particular, within the informal sector;

f) encourage the establishment of  a system of protection and social insurance for women working in the informal sector;

g) introduce a minimum age of work and prohibit children below that age from working, and prohibit the exploitation of children, especially the girl-child;

h) take the necessary measures to recognise the economic value of the work of women in the home;

i) guarantee adequate pre and post-natal maternity leave;

j) ensure equality in taxation for men and women;

k) recognise the right of salaried women to the same allowances and entitlements as those granted to salaried men for their spouses and children;

l) recognise motherhood and the upbringing of children as a social function for which the State, the private sector and both parents must take responsibility.

Article 14- Health and Reproductive Rights

1. State Parties shall ensure that the right to health of women are respected and promoted. These  rights include:

a) the right to control their fertility;

b) the right to decide whether to have children;

c) the right to space their children;

d) the right to choose any method of contraception;

e) the right to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDs;

f) the right to be informed on one’s health status and on the health status of one’s partner.

2. State Parties shall take appropriate measures to:

a) provide adequate, affordable and accessible health services to women especially those in rural areas;

b) establish pre-and post-natal health and nutritional services for women during pregnancy and while they are breast-feeding;

c) protect the reproductive rights of women particularly by authorising medical abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Article 15-Right to Food Security

State Parties shall ensure that women have the right to nutritious and adequate food.  In this regard, they shall take appropriate measures to:

a) provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land, and the means of producing nutritious food;

b) establish adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security.

Article 16-Right to Adequate Housing

Women shall have the right to equal access to housing and to acceptable living conditions in a healthy environment. To ensure this right, State Parties shall grant to women, whatever their marital status, access to adequate housing.

Article 17-Right to Positive Cultural Context

1. Women shall have the right to live in a positive cultural context and to participate at all levels in the determination of cultural policies.

2. State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to enhance the participation of women in the conception of cultural policies at all levels.

Article 18-Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment

1. Women shall have the right to live in a healthy and sustainable environment.

2. State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to:

a) involve women in the management of the environment at all levels;

b) promote research into renewable energy sources and facilitate women’s access to them;

c) regulate the management, processing and storage of domestic waste;

d) ensure that proper standards are followed for the storage, transportation and destruction of toxic waste.

Article 19-Right to Sustainable Development

1. Women shall have the right to fully enjoy their right to sustainable development.

2. State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to:

a) ensure that women participate fully at all levels in the conceptualisation, decision-making, implementation and evaluation of development policies and programmes;

b) facilitate women’s access to land and guarantee their right to property, whatever their marital status;

c) facilitate women’s access to credit and natural resources through flexible mechanisms;

d) take into account indicators of human development specifically relating to women in the elaboration of development policies and programmes; and

e) ensure that in the implementation of trade and economic policies and  programmes such as globalisation, the negative effects on women are minimised.

Article 20-Widows’ Rights

State Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure effective implementation of the following provisions:

a) prohibit that widows be subjected to inhuman, humiliating and degrading treatment;

b) Widows shall become the guardians of their children, after the death of the husband;

c)  Widows shall have the right to marry a person of their choice.
 

Article 21- Right to Inheritance

1. A widow/widower shall have the right to inherit each other’s property. In the event of death, the surviving spouse has the right, whatever the matrimonial regime, to continue living in the matrimonial house.
 
2. Women and girls shall have the same rights as men and boys to inherit, in equal shares, their parents’ properties.

Article 22-Special Protection of Elderly Women and Women with Disability

Elderly women and women with disability have the right to specific measures of protection commensurate with their physical and moral needs.

Article 23-Interpretation
 
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights shall be seized with matters of interpretation arising from the application or implementation of this Protocol.

Article 24-Signature, Ratification and Accession

1. This Protocol shall be open to signature, ratification and accession by the State Parties, in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures.
 
2. The instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary General of the OAU. 

Article 25-Entry into Force
 
1. This Protocol shall enter into force thirty (30) days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15) instrument of ratification.
 
2. For each of the State Party that accedes to this Protocol after its coming into force, the Protocol shall come into force at the date of deposit of the instrument of accession.
 
3. The Secretary General of the OAU shall inform the State Parties of the coming into force of this Protocol.

Article 26-Amendment and Revision

1. Any State Party may submit proposals for the amendment or revision of this Protocol.

2. Proposals for amendment or revision shall be submitted, in writing, to the Secretary General of the OAU who shall transmit same to the State Parties within thirty (30) days of receipt thereof.

3. The Assembly, upon advice of the African Commission, shall examine these proposals within a period of one (1) year following notification of State Parties, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 2 of this article.

4. Amendments or revision shall be adopted by the Assembly by consensus or, failing which, by a simple majority.

5. The Commission may also, through the Secretary General of the OAU, propose amendments to this Protocol.

6. The amendment shall come into force for each State Party which has accepted it thirty (30) days after the Secretary General of the OAU has received notice of the acceptance.

Article 27-Status of the Present Protocol

None of the provisions of the present Protocol shall affect more favourable provisions for the realisation of rights of women contained in the national legislation of State Parties or in any other regional, sub-regional, continental or international conventions, treaties or agreements applicable in these State Parties.