Every right in a treaty needs a way to check whether it is respected. For the Maputo Protocol, that check runs through State reporting. Module 1 of RFLD’s manual, Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, starts with the legal basis of that duty. Understanding it is the first step towards a shadow report that Commissioners will take seriously.
Two articles, one procedure
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted in Maputo on 11 July 2003. It entered into force on 25 November 2005. Its reporting clause is Article 26.
Article 26(1) says that States shall, in their periodic reports submitted in accordance with Article 62 of the African Charter, “indicate the legislative and other measures undertaken for the full realisation of the rights herein recognised.”
Article 62 of the African Charter is the general reporting rule. Each State Party must submit a report every two years on the legislative or other measures it has taken to give effect to the Charter’s rights.
The two provisions work together. There is no separate reporting cycle for the Maputo Protocol. A State reports on women’s rights inside its regular Charter report, usually in a distinct section. The manual stresses this point because it shapes the timing of every shadow report: you follow the Charter calendar.
Money is part of the obligation
Article 26(2) adds a second commitment. States undertake to provide “budgetary and other resources” to implement the rights in the Protocol.
This is a powerful tool for shadow reporters. A State can describe a new law or a national action plan in glowing terms. Article 26(2) lets civil society ask a direct question: what budget was allocated, and was it spent? The manual encourages authors to look for budget evidence alongside legal and statistical evidence. A policy with no line in the national budget is a promise, and the Commission can be asked to say so.
What the State report should contain
The Commission adopted Guidelines for State Reporting under the Maputo Protocol at its 46th Ordinary Session, held in Banjul in November 2009. The Commission’s website dates the document 5 February 2010, which is why some sources call them the 2010 Guidelines.
Under these Guidelines, a State report has two parts. Part A covers the rights in the African Charter. Part B covers the rights in the Maputo Protocol. Part B should preferably be 50 pages or fewer for a first report, and 30 pages or fewer after that.
Part B is organised in eight thematic clusters:
- equality and non-discrimination
- protection from violence
- marriage
- health and reproductive rights
- economic, social and cultural rights
- the right to peace
- armed conflict
- specially protected groups of women
For each cluster, the State is expected to cover legislation, institutions, policies, education, remedies, challenges and accessibility. That checklist is useful to shadow reporters too. When a State report is silent on remedies or accessibility, the gap itself is a finding.
The Commission’s Rules make it binding in practice
The Commission’s 2020 Rules of Procedure turn these texts into a working procedure. Rule 78 says that reports must follow the Commission’s Guidelines and cover the Charter and “those other instruments” that give the Commission a supervisory role. The Maputo Protocol is one of them.
A 2023 Guidance Note on State Reporting goes further. It asks States to cover the Maputo Protocol and the Kampala Convention in the same report as the Charter, and it counts one overdue report for each two-year delay.
Why this matters for civil society
The duty to report belongs to the State, yet any interested party can check the result. The manual explains that civil society does not need permission to engage. Rule 79(3) invites any interested party to send a shadow report at least 30 days before the examination.
Knowing the legal basis helps in several practical ways. It tells you when to write: whenever your State’s Charter report is due, because the Maputo section travels with it. It tells you how to structure your report: around the eight Part B clusters. It gives you a standard to measure the State against: legislative and other measures. And Article 26(2) tells you to ask where the money is.
That gap between commitment and reality is what a shadow report documents. In October 2024, only 21 of 45 States Parties had ever submitted a report under the Protocol. Where States stay silent, civil society evidence becomes even more important. To see how national laws compare, RFLD’s country law profiles are a good place to start.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
