JIMMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE

SCHOOL OF LAW

Assignment on: African Union Law

Title: Protection of Women’s Right in the African Rights System

Group Members ID NO.

1. Rebira Dufera..........................................................................03494/06
2. Moti Temesgen.........................................................................03518/06
3. Kuma Dejene...........................................................................03480/06
4. Roba Mununo..........................................................................07097/04
5. Niguse Tamiru.........................................................................03493/06
6. Negatebeb Alemu....................................................................03491/06
7. Neway Demise........................................................................03492/06
8. Yohannes Ayele.......................................................................03516/06
Submitted to: Ins. Zalalem

Submission date: June 1, 2017

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 Table of content
1. Chapter one..........................................................................................................3

1.1. Protection of Women’s Right in the African Rights System............................3

2. Chapter two.........................................................................................................4

2.1. Women’s Right under the OAU/AU Framework..............................................4

2.2. African Protocol on the Rights of Women........................................................4

2.3. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of
Women in Africa......................................................................................................5

2.3.1. Refuge.....................................................................................................8

2.3.2. Elimination of Discrimination Against Women......................................9

2.3.3. Harmful practices and violence against women.....................................10

2.3.4. Violence against women.........................................................................10

2.4. Strong side of the protocol...............................................................................10

2.5. Defect of protocol............................................................................................11

3. Chapter three.......................................................................................................13

3.1. Conclusion.......................................................................................................13

3.2. Recommendation.............................................................................................16

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 CHAPTER ONE

Protection of Women’s Right in the African Rights System

Introduction

Sexual (gender) inequality is a global reality. Women as part of human being are entitled
to benefits and protections under the general human rights instruments (both UN and
regional) such as the equality and non-discrimination clauses, and other fundamental
guarantees. This is why, as women’s right to be protected. However, the reality has been
otherwise. Women have been subjected for long time to discrimination, denial of access
to basic rights (education, health, property, employment etc), and victim of a wide range
of discriminatory and harmful practices (domestic violence, early marriage, FGM, etc).

Women in the African context are even more exposed to differential treatment and a lot of
disadvantages. It is stated that African public and private life have been and dominated
by men. Women’s participation in most walks of life has been undermined.

These are among the limited reasons which lead to the separated treatment of women’s
rights and eventual adoption of separate documents. Before looking to this aspire
document let us see what is by African human rights system mean.

African Human Rights System is the youngest of the three judicial or quasi-judicial
regional human rights systems, and was created under the auspices of the African Union.
Like the Inter-American System (and the European System, as originally designed), it is
composed of two entities: a Commission and a Court.1

IJR Center’s publication Advocacy before the African Human right System: Manual for
Attorney and Advocates provides detailed information on the System, its components,
complaints procedure, and decisions. The manual addresses the continental human rights
bodies, as well as regional courts engaged in human rights protection.2

The two basic documents of paramount importance to women’s rights are the UN
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW)

1
http://www.au.int/en/, accessed on 21/05/2017
2
http://www.ijrcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Advocacy-before-the-African-Human-Rights-
System.pdf, accessed on 21/05/2017

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and the recently adopted African Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples
Rights on the Rights on the Rights of women in Africa (APRW).

CHAPTER TWO

Women’s Right under the OAU/AU Framework

There has been a repeated criticism that the OAU Charter and the ACHPR gave
inadequate attention to women in Africa. The first does not contain any mention of
gender, while the later raised women’s rights specifically under a single provision
(Article 18). However, OAU Charter’s silence was later remedied by a series of
resolutions and decisions addressing the promotion and protection of women’s rights in
Africa. The most underlying factors behind such initiatives were said to be: the
participation of the OAU in international conferences, the role and contribution of women
in the African liberation struggle and to react to conflicts and economic development of
the continent.

The central them of the decisions and resolutions of OAU on women’s matters
throughout 1990s were on promotion, enhancement and empowerment of women’s
participation at all levels of decision-making (international, regional, national and local).
It was believed that it is only through the participation of women in every aspect of
national and international affairs (Political, economic, social, etc) that a meaningful
change can be brought. Of course, this position of the OAU was reflected in the recently
adopted women’s Protocol. Moreover, the OAU Charter’s omission has been now
remedied under the AU Constitutive Act by providing ‘promotion of gender equality’ as
one of its guiding principles (CA, Art. 4(1)). In addition to this, the AU has adopted a
‘Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa’ on July 2004 which calls for the
expansion of the gender parity principle to all AU organs, NEPAD, the RECs, and
national parliaments.

2.2. African Protocol on the Rights of Women

The need to adopt women’s treaty law was called upon by NGOs working on women’s
right which was based on concern about the pervasive abuse of women’s rights. The work
was begun by appointing commissioners to coordinate and prepare women’s protocol.

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The role of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and the Gender Unit
within the OAU was significant. The later prepared a draft OAU Convention on Harmful
Traditional Practices (HTPs). However, the African Commission’s draft protocol and the
HTPs draft conventions were later merged and adopted as the Draft Protocol to the
African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Addis Ababa draft).

On “July” 2003, the AU Assembly adopted the protocol to the African Charter on the
Rights of women in Africa which entered into force on 25 November 2005.

Women’s protocol, like that of African Children’s Charter, has introduced innovative
norms and addressed the realities and problems of African women. Of course, it has also
similarity with that of CEDAW provisions.

To assess the normative expansion brought about by the protocol, the pre-existing
normative framework (‘the existing law’) has to be reviewed and contrasted with the
protocol.

Though Article 18 of the ACHPR characterizes women as one of the groups deserving of
protection, the special measures to be directed in protecting women and ensuring the
elimination of discrimination against them are not delineated. Even if CEDAW was
passed two years prior to the adoption of the African Charter, the fact is that the later was
only minimally influenced by CEDAW’s provisions by incorporating only a single
provision dealing with women’s rights.

The African Children’s Charter has also some link to women’s protocol as it provides for
important rights of girl child, in particular the prohibition in children marrying under the
age of 18.

2.3. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of
4.
Women in Africa
This Protocol was adopted on 11 July 2003 at the African Union summit in Mozambique.
It was a supplementary Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples‟ Rights,
which was adopted in 1981. A general glance at the protocol reveals that advancing the
human rights of African women through creative, substantive and detailed language, the

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Protocol covers a broad range of human rights issues. For the first time in international
law, it explicitly sets forth the reproductive right of women to medical abortion when
pregnancy results from rape, or incest, or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers
the health, or life of the mother. Added to this, the Protocol explicitly calls for the legal
prohibition of female genital mutilation.
The base for this Protocol as it is clearly provided under paragraph three of the preamble,
is Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples‟ Rights which imposes duties
on state parties to eradicate every possible discrimination against women, and to ensure
the protection of the rights of women as stipulated in international declarations and
conventions.
The other consideration that was taken into account when the Protocol was adopted is
that the practice of international and even African human right laws in recognizing the
rights of women as inalienable right. Under its preamble it stipulated as:
....that women's rights have been recognized 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 its Optional Protocol, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child, and all other international and regional conventions and covenants relating
to the rights of women as being inalienable, interdependent and indivisible human rights.

In the entire body of the Protocol, it calls for an end to all forms of violence against
women including unwanted or forced sex, whether it takes place in private or in public,
and recognition of protection from sexual and verbal violence as inherent in the right to
dignity. It endorses affirmative action to promote the equal participation of women,
including the equal representation of women in elected office, and calls for the equal
representation of women in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies as an integral part
of equal protection and benefit of the law. Articulating the right to peace, the Protocol
also recognizes the right of women to participate in the promotion and maintenance of
peace.
The broad range of economic and social welfare rights of the women set forth in the

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Protocol includes the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to adequate and paid
maternity leave in both private and public sectors. It also calls on states to take effective
measures to prevent the exploitation and abuse of women in advertising and pornography.
The rights of particularly vulnerable groups of women, including widows, elderly
women, disabled women and 'women in distress,' which includes poor women, women
from marginalized population groups, and pregnant or nursing women in detention, are
specifically recognized.
The women’s protocol is the first treaty to place polygamy Art.6(c), HIV/AIDS Art.14(1)
(e), medical abortion Art.14(2) k) and domestic violence Art. 4(2), in its binding human
rights framework by considering necessary implication of targeting violence against
women and ‘unwanted or forced sex’ in the private sphere is that the protocol requires
domestic violence legislation and the criminalization of ‘rape in marriage’. The
precarious position of groups of women that have been rendered particularly vulnerable
due to loss of a spouse, overlap with old age, disability, and poverty which also receive
the protocol’s attention. (Arts. 20-24). The protocol once again reiterates the general
stipulation of 18 years as the minimum age of marriage (Art. 6(b)).

It also provides in detail for the protection of women in armed conflict (Art. 11), and
reiterates the need to accord women refugees protection under international law (Art. 4(2)
(k)). The women’s protocol incorporates clear and expansive definitions of
‘discrimination against women’ (Art. 1(j), e.g. it includes economic harm), ‘harmful
practices’ and ‘violence against women’. ‘Harmful practices’ such as female genital
mutilation are specifically prohibited (Art.5).

With the same this or at a same time the protocol aadopting a distinctly transformative
stance, the protocol emphasizes ‘corrective’ and ‘specific positive’ (or ‘affirmative’)
action. While CEDAW contains a generic provision allowing for ‘temporary special
measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women’ (CEDAW,
Art. 4(1)), the protocol reiterates the need for ‘positive’ measures by locating them in
different contexts.

The protocol requires states to adopt measures that may favor women above men ‘such as
electoral quotas for women in order to ensure substantive’ (‘in fact’) equality (Art. 9(11)).

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Positive action is also specifically required with regard to ‘discrimination in low’ (Art.
2(1) (d)), illiteracy, and education (Art. 12(2)). Let us see some of the specific intended
point by protocol.

2.3.1. Refuge

Among two further instruments adopted under the auspices of the OAU/AU is precious
instrument in which the rights of asylum-seeking women and children would be spelt out
further. This article considers not only the legal framework providing for the promotion
and protection of the rights of asylum seekers and refugees within the African regional
human rights system, but also the manner in which the institutions charged with
supervising implementation of these treaties.

The OAU Refugee Convention provision was ultimately picked up and expanded upon in
article 12(3) of the African Charter, as general provision, which provides that ‘every
individual shall have the right, when persecuted, to seek and obtain asylum in other
countries in accordance with the laws of those countries and international conventions’.
This article further and in more general terms stipulates that non-nationals legally
admitted to the territory of a state party may only be expelled ‘by virtue of a decision
taken in accordance with the law’, and additionally prohibits the mass expulsion of non-
nationals. This is why only for the purpose of strengthening peace, solidarity and friendly
relations among the party to the protocol.

In addition to these general provisions, both the African Children’s Charter and the
African Women’s Protocol, in acknowledgment of the fact that up to 80 per cent of the
world’s refugee population is comprised of women and children, further set out specific
obligations incumbent on state parties with regard to these two groups. Thus, article 23 of
the African Children’s Charter details that ‘all appropriate measures’ are to be taken in
order to ensure that children seeking refugee status or who have been granted refugee
status, regardless of whether they are accompanied or not, receive ‘appropriate protection
and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of the rights set out in ...the Children’s
Charter and other international human rights and humanitarian instruments to which the
states are parties.3 State parties are also to assist unaccompanied children to ‘trace the
3
http://www.ahrlj.up.ac.za/bekker-g-1, accessed on 21/05/2017

8
parents or other close relatives ... in order to obtain information necessary for
reunification with the family’.4 Where no parents or guardians are to be found, the state is
to ensure the same protection to the unaccompanied child as is given in respect of ‘any
other child permanently or temporarily deprived of his family environment for any
reason’.5 In recognition of the fact that asylum-seeking and refugee women have
particular needs which may differ from those of men, the African Women’s Protocol
provides for: equality of access in respect of the refugee status determination process; the
provision to refugee women of their own identity as well as other documentation; the
inclusion of women in decision-making structures at all levels; and the protection of
asylum-seeking, refugee, returnee and displaced women from ‘all forms of violence, rape
and other forms of sexual exploitation’.6 With regard to the latter, the African Women’s
Protocol further requires states to ensure that such acts are considered war crimes,
genocide and/or crimes against humanity and that perpetrators of these acts are ‘brought
to justice before a competent criminal jurisdiction’.7

2.3.2. Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Concerning discrimination against women in addition to Art. 18 of African Charter on

Human and Peoples' Rights, an specific Protocol to the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa give more specific concern. Let start
with what "Discrimination against women" means. Under Art. 1 of this protocol the term
is defined as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction or any differential treatment based
on sex and whose objectives 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”8

This specific legal provision and preamble of this protocol try to cover ddiscrimination
against women in the continent and try to committed on the way discrimination be
illuminate.

4
ibid.
5
ibid.
6
ibid.
7
http://www.ahrlj.up.ac.za/bekker-g-1 accessed on 21/05/2017
8
Art. 1.African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

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2.3.3. Harmful practices and violence against women

This harmful practice against women is defined under Art. 1(g) of African Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights on rights of women in Africa as “all behavior, attitudes
and/or practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such
as their right to life, health, dignity, education and physical integrity.”9
In addition, Arts 4, 10 & 11. Other noteworthy provisions include articles dealing with
the elimination of harmful practices, including the prohibition of all forms of female
genital mutilation (art 5); the encouragement of monogamy as the preferred form of
marriage (art 6(c)); equal rights in relation to separation, divorce and annulment of
marriage (art 7); control over fertility (art 14); the right to inheritance (art 21); and
widows’ rights (art 20). The right to peace (art 10) and the protection of women in armed
conflict (art 11) are also recognized, as are special measures of protection which are to be
afforded to elderly women (art 22), women with disabilities (art 23) and women in
distress (art 24).

2.3.4. Violence against women

This is also defined under Art.1 (j) of African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on
rights of women in Africa as “all acts perpetrated against women which cause or could
cause them physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to
take such acts; or to undertake the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of
fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peace time and during situations of
armed conflicts or of war”10
As aforementioned somewhere in presiding part of the paper the entire body of the
Protocol, it calls for an end to all forms of violence against women including unwanted or
forced sex, whether it takes place in private or in public, and a recognition of protection
from sexual and verbal violence as inherent in the right to dignity.
2.4. Strong side of the protocol

Aadopted as resolution concerning women's rights, including persistence of harmful

traditional practices, widespread poverty, the stigmatization of women with HIV/AIDS,
and the need for states to ratify the Women's Protocol. Stronger resolutions are required
9
Art. 1(g) of African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on rights of women in Africa
10
Art. 1(j) of African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on rights of women in Africa

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whereby these issues and others are addressed in detail individually, rather than as part of
a general situation alongside children, another vulnerable group with often related, but
unique, needs and concerns. Unfortunately, these types of resolutions are difficult to
secure due to the highly political nature of the African Commission, despite the
independence of the commissioners. While the presence of five female commissioners,
including the Chairperson, inspires hope for an increased prevalence of women's rights-
related resolutions, unanimity is required for the adoption of resolutions. Thus, the
aversion of even one commissioner from, or allied with, a less progressive state
concerning women's rights can prevent the adoption of a resolution. Mindful of the
inevitable politics surrounding the consideration and adoption of resolutions, gender
advocates must strategies accordingly. For example, drafting must include diplomacy.
Likely opponents and allies within the African Commission must be identified and
lobbied. Ultimately, as NGOs may often be perceived as a nuisance, the respective allies
should lobby the opponents. Finally, publicity, via the media in particular, must be used to
its full potential. Civil society and the AU must monitor any resulting changes in the
situation and continue to exert pressure. The PAP and ECOSOCC, in particular, are well
placed in this respect as platforms for women's voices and due to their advisory mandate.

The protocol provides specificity where vagueness prevailed, for example when it
clarifies that ‘Positive African Values’ are those based on the principles of equality, peace,
freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy (preamble). It also spells out the scope
of socio-economic rights in greater detail than CEDAW, which limited some socio-
economic rights to rural women (EDDAW, Art. 14), and goes beyond the scope of the
rights provided for under the African Charter by spelling out the content of rights and by
including the right to food security and adequate housing (Arts. 12,13,14,15 & 16).

2.5. Defect of protocol

Although the women’s protocol significantly advances standard-setting, it suffers from

inelegant and unfortunate drafting deficiencies. The disproportionate effect of HIV and
AIDS on women in Africa is not adequately reflected in the text. In any event, the right to
be informed of one’s own and one’s partner’s HIV status is ambiguous and should not
form the basis for the erosion of rights. The feminization of poverty, especially in rural

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Africa, is also not adequately reflected. As for its drafting, there is some inconsistency in
the ‘rights-bearers’ in the protocol, with men sometimes specifically included in the
scope of rights, and sometimes not. Similar to the instrument that it supplements, the
African Charter, the women’s protocol does not have a provision on reservations. At the
beginning of 2007, three states (Namibia, South Africa, and the Gambia) entered
reservations upon ratification of the protocol. Thus, the benefits of these treaty provisions
may be lost if reservations exclude the application of some of its important provisions.
However, there are some hopes that even countries that entered reservations to CEDAW
(e.g. Libya and Lesotho) did not enter similar reservations when ratifying the protocol.
For lack of clarity, this area is expected to be elaborated by the enforcing organs on the
basis of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969).11
The protocol was drawn up after many other treaties and therefore has the advantage of
hindsight. It was able to draw on the best parts of earlier documents while also dealing
with issues they omitted. The protocol is closely modeled on CEDAW; there are more
similarities than differences between the two. The differences are mainly in those areas
that concern African women and that CEDAW mentions in the abstract or not at all. The
protocol names specific rights and defines violence against women. Its definition of a
woman is comprehensive and includes the girl-child. It is culture-specific and therefore
very valuable in challenging negative cultural practices. Unlike CEDAW, the protocol
places explicit obligations on states to set aside resources to eliminate discrimination
against women and to punish people or organizations that practice it.

The protocol can be a tool that forces states to priorities legislative measures to eliminate
harmful traditional practices. It provides a foundation on which human rights acquire
legality in the African context, and a basis for assertions that African women’s rights to
equality are no longer contested. What is critical at this point is to see greater dynamism
from domestic courts, the charter and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in
giving meaning and precedence to the protocol.

11
http://www.abyssinialaw.com/study-on-line/item/371-protection-for-women-under-african-human-rights-
system, accessed on 21/05/2017

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The protocol attempts to invigorate the charter’s commitment to women’s equality by
adding rights that it omitted and by clarifying governments’ obligations. Only one of the
charter’s more than 60 articles makes specific reference to women.

The protocol recognizes women as individual human beings rather than members of
communities or families. It deals with discrimination in both the public and private
realms and targets both direct and indirect discrimination. It also moves equality from an
abstract concept to something that states parties are expected to take concrete measures to
address.
Most importantly, however, the protocol offers a real remedy for women at the regional
level. It gives women victims of human rights violations somewhere to turn, providing
them with practical access to bodies which will understand the implications of their
experience.

Ttransition from OAU to AU has created hope by means of new opportunities for
improving the culture, or lack thereof, of human rights on the continent. Established in
1963, the OAU prioritized the struggles against colonialism and apartheid. Despite the
important human rights implications inherent in each of those goals, human rights as
defined by international treaties, such as those comprising the International Bill of Rights,
were not on its agenda for close to 18 years of its existence. The rights of women were
also not prioritized. Under the OAU, Africa witnessed countless failures in the areas of
peace, good governance, the rule of law and, consequently, respect for human rights. The
AU offers hope for a new African human rights legacy.12

CHAPTER THREE

Conclusion

Although gender equality is a principle of the AU, the reality is that patriarchy remains
highly institutionalized in all African systems, and rarely are those who benefit from the
status quo eager to witness its evolution. It is now in the hands of African women and
men to wage a multifaceted struggle formulated around the various available entry points
for gender advocacy and, in so doing, maximize the opportunities presented by the AU's

12
http://www.ahrlj.up.ac.za/stefiszyn-k#_ftn10, accessed on 21/05/2017

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commitment to gender equality. Components of the struggle may include claiming the
existing political space for women as decision makers within the AU and creating space
where it does not currently exist, advocating for ratification of the Women's Protocol and
the African Court of Justice, and increased and more effective engagement with the
African Commission.

Despite the favorability of the regional political structures to endeavors towards gender
equality, significant general challenges exist aside. First, gender mainstreaming is a
complex process and many political leaders and even gender activists are confused as to
what gender mainstreaming actually means.13A strategy for making women's as well as
men's is not perpetuated.

In other words, gender mainstreaming is not complete once women are simply welcomed
participants in traditionally male-dominated structures. The lack of understanding of how
gender perspectives can be identified and addressed remains one of the most serious
constraints. Policies and programmers, along with corresponding activities, must
ultimately reflect the experiences and needs of women and men. This has yet to
materialize beyond lip service in the AU.14

Another challenge in the midst of advancing women's rights is the proliferation of

mechanisms within the AU.15 However, the challenges created by the proliferation of
mechanisms in Africa are not insurmountable if, combined with other strategies, issue-
based priorities are identified and advocated for within structures most likely to
correspond to their advancement.
From the above it can be seen that the African Union has plans and programmers to
ensure that its member states are part of the global effort to advance the principle of
gender equality in Africa

Despite the struggle ahead for its ratification and implementation, the adoption of the
Women's Protocol is a monumental achievement for women's rights activists. The
Protocol addresses rights of concern to African women. It prohibits harmful traditional
practices, addresses marriage, eeconomic and social welfare rights and group rights,
13
ibid
14
ibid
15

14
inclusion of reproductive rights, right to inheritance, and special protection for the elderly
and disabled.16

The Protocol is commendable, not least for its recognition of the limitations of legislative
prescriptions alone and its provision, therefore, of a holistic approach to women's rights.
When acknowledging the scale of the challenges, it is celebrate our achievements by
recognizing the efforts of Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), a coalition
that has been working tirelessly to advance the cause of the protocol.

SOAWR is a regional network of 26 civil society organizations and development partners

working towards the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Africa. Its
main focus has been to get those countries that have not yet ratified the protocol to do so
urgently, while at the same time encouraging those that have ratified it to domesticate and
implement it at the national level. SOAWR also works to persuade countries that have
ratified the protocol with reservations to remove harmful reservations that would
constitute a denial of some of the most important freedoms and rights of women
recognized in the protocol. It create a platform for debate and dialogue on the disjuncture
between international instruments and their national implementation in Africa and to
identify strategies that researchers, activists, and government officials can apply to bridge
that gap. Gender activists should also join their voices to civil society coalitions such as
SOAWR to continue calling for the removal of the structural barriers that face women.

It is evident from the preceding paragraphs that the adoption of the protocol is a
significant development that will ensure the full integration of women’s human rights
within the overall human rights framework in Africa. The protocol will allow both the
African Commission and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to elaborate
how the rights recognized under it should be guaranteed in real-life situations.

The role of international instruments and other initiatives cannot be underestimated.

Broad legitimacy beyond the nation state has created some leverage to pursue the gender
agenda. However we are faced with growing failure to translate these instruments into
reality in the domestic context. The gap between the commitments and their
16
http://www.ahrlj.up.ac.za/stefiszyn-k#_ftn125-African human rights journals, accessed on 21/05/2017

15
implementation is becoming ever larger, raising the question: what needs to be done? We
should consider both individually and collectively what we can do to ensure that
implementation takes place.

There is no denying that it is very important to have these commitments on paper as

markers of progress. What is more important though is using them to ensure actual
change in the lives of women. We have to be careful that the gains won in Beijing are not
turned back.

Recommendation:-our group members would like to recommend regarding to Article 18, even though
Article 18 of the ACHPR characterizes women as one of the groups deserving of
protection, the special measures to be directed in protecting women and ensuring the
elimination of discrimination against them are not delineated. Even if CEDAW was
passed two years prior to the adoption of the African Charter, the fact is that the later was
only minimally influenced by CEDAW’s provisions by incorporating only a single
provision dealing with women’s rights.

16