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RFLD organized an Advocacy Meeting in Cameroun ahead of the celebration of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa 20 years

Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) organized a Meeting in Yaounde, Cameroun in March 2023.

This activity was supported by our Partner CIVICUS.

This activity was ahead to the celebration of the Maputo Protocol 20 years The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa

The activity objectives were:

  • Hold governments accountable to their women’s rights obligations
  • Build the capacity of women’s rights NGOs, Journalists and Lawyers to equip them with knowledge and skills for a proper and more effective way to engage the ACHPR Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights
  • Monitor the application of decisions and recommendations of African regional human rights mechanisms

 

July 11, 2023 will mark the significant 20th Anniversary of the Maputo Protocol. The coming into force in 2005 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, also known as the Maputo Protocol, was the culmination of years of advocacy by women’s rights organisations across the continent. Although most African countries have either signed or ratified the Maputo Protocol, its implementation and application in national, regional and continental litigation is far from becoming a reality.

The African Charter, adopted in 1981, recognised that discrimination against women should be eliminated. This called for a sturdier and more robust framework with specific obligatory norms that could address the rights of women, leading to the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (better known as the Maputo Protocol).

The Maputo Protocol was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2005, representing an important milestone for women’s empowerment and gender equality in Africa. The Protocol was adopted on the backdrop of the challenges that women faced in Africa, including the various forms of gender based violence encompassing physical, sexual and psychological harm perpetrated against women and girls. During conflict, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violence due to the breakdown of law and order and the loss of community protection. In the absence of adequate legal mechanisms for redress and punishment of perpetrators, women fear being ostracized, stigmatized, or victims of reprisals in a climate of indifference or tacit acceptance of sexual violence