[women-rights] African Union: Promotion and protection of the women's rights

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International

AI-index: IOR 10/001/2003     23/03/2003

African Union: An opportunity to strengthen the promotion and protection of 
the women's rights


Amnesty International urges the African Union ministerial meeting, 
convening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 24 to 28 March, to agree on a 
protocol to strengthen the human rights framework for the protection and 
promotion of women's rights in Africa.

"It is vital that the Draft Protocol includes measures to ensure greater 
accountability of states to eliminate prejudices and practices that impede 
women's rights to equality and freedom from discrimination. The meeting 
must send an important message to African governments that the human rights 
of women are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of 
internationally recognized human rights," Amnesty International said.

The Draft Protocol is expected to be adopted by the Assembly of Heads of 
the African Union at its second session in Maputo in July.

Numerous violations of women's rights, including female genital mutilation, 
forced marriage, domestic violence and rape, occur on a daily basis in 
Africa. These abuses result from, and are compounded by, women's social and 
economic inequality: lack of access to education, land, financial resources 
and health care and their inequality within the family.

Amnesty International appeals to the government participants to agree on 
comprehensive standards that would not only guarantee women's right to live 
free from violence, but also provide more effective implementation and 
enforcement mechanisms.

"Since many abuses of women's rights, especially gender violence, result 
from private action, participants should seek the inclusion of explicit 
provisions on the question of state responsibility for violations of 
women's rights by private groups and individuals, in the Draft Protocol," 
Amnesty International urged.

"Any consideration of possible human rights standards to strengthen the 
Draft Protocol must necessarily take into account the needs and opinions of 
African women, and draw on their insights and experiences about what is 
central to their integrity as human beings."


Background

Negotiations around the Draft Protocol of the African Charter on Human and 
Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa began in 1995. The last 
meeting of governments experts to negotiate the Draft Protocol took place 
in November 2001 in Addis Ababa.

Once the text of the Draft Protocol is agreed by the government experts, it 
will be passed to the African Union Assembly for its adoption in July 2003.

This Draft Protocol contains provisions to promote and protect a wide rage 
of human rights of women in Africa, including the right to life, integrity 
and security of person, protection from harmful traditional practices, and 
protection of women in armed conflict.

The current draft mandates the African Commission on Human and Peoples' 
Rights to monitor states' implementation of the provisions of the Protocol.


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