A right that a woman cannot read is a right she cannot claim. This is why RFLD is putting the Maputo Protocol into African languages. Today we publish four new translations, in Amharic, Igbo, Lingala and Twi. We are also putting our earlier Hausa, Zarma, Goun and Yoruba versions online as plain text that anyone can read on a phone.
All eight versions now sit on one page: The Maputo Protocol in your language.
Why languages matter for women’s rights
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. Forty-six of the fifty-five African Union States have ratified it. Yet the official texts exist only in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic. Most women in rural areas, many community leaders and many local officials work in other languages.
When a paralegal in Enugu, a women’s group in Kumasi, a radio host in Kinshasa or a health worker in Bahir Dar can read Article 4 or Article 14 in her own language, the Protocol stops being a distant treaty. It becomes a tool she can quote to a chief, a police officer or a judge.
Four new translations
- Amharic, for Ethiopia, a State Party whose reservations RFLD analyses in its country briefs.
- Igbo, for south-eastern Nigeria, where RFLD is building its Nigeria Network of member organisations.
- Lingala, spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo.
- Twi, the most widely spoken language in Ghana, home of RFLD’s Africa Office in Accra.
Each translation covers the full text: the preamble and all 32 articles, with the same numbering as the original. Each can be read online and downloaded as a PDF.
Our earlier work, now readable online
In 2022 RFLD translated the Protocol into Hausa and Zarma for its advocacy for ratification in Niger, and recorded both as audio. RFLD also produced versions in Goun and Yoruba for communities in Benin. Until now these texts existed only as PDF booklets. They are now also online as web pages, which load quickly on a phone, can be searched and work with screen readers for blind and partially sighted readers.
We applied the same approach to our latest report. Lifting the Reservations: Nine Country Briefs on the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026, can now be read online in full.
No duplication
Before choosing languages we checked what already exists. Members of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights coalition (SOAWR) have published the Protocol in Kiswahili, Kinyarwanda and Chichewa, along with a simplified English version. Our hub links to these versions, so that readers find every language in one place and no one translates the same text twice.
How we worked, and how you can help
The new versions were translated from the official English text adopted by the African Union. They are unofficial translations, produced for awareness, training and advocacy. Only the texts adopted by the African Union are authentic. Legal language rarely has an exact match in every language, so each version is open for review by native speakers and lawyers, and every validated correction will go into the next edition.
If you speak Amharic, Igbo, Lingala or Twi and work on women’s rights or law, we would welcome your review. If your organisation wants to bring the Protocol into Wolof, Pulaar, Bambara, Mooré, Fon, Mandinka or another language, write to us at programs@rflgd.org.
From reading to action
Reading the Protocol is a first step. The Maputo Barometer shows where each country stands. The free online course explains how to use the Protocol, and the shadow report manual shows how to report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. RFLD holds Observer Status N°553 with the Commission and will use these translations in its work with member organisations in more than 35 countries.
