of the Maputo Protocol —
the continental treaty on African women's rights.
Adopted at Maputo, Mozambique, on 11 July 2003, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa marks its twenty-third anniversary today — in force across 46 of 55 AU member states. This hub tracks ratification, hosts indigenous-language translations and audio recordings, and indexes RFLD's published guides on implementation.
Twenty-three years in six moments
Source · AU Treaties DepositaryA continental treaty on the rights of African women.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa — known as the Maputo Protocol — was adopted at the African Union meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, on 11 July 2003. It supplements the African Charter with detailed provisions on women's rights: equality, dignity, protection from violence, marriage and divorce, education, employment, health (including reproductive health), property and inheritance, peace, food security, sustainable development, and special protection for women in distress.
The Protocol required ratification by at least 15 member states to enter into force. The 15th ratification was deposited on 26 October 2005, and the Protocol entered into force on 25 November 2005.
Twenty-three years after adoption, 46 of 55 African Union member states have ratified the Protocol. Two states have neither signed nor ratified — Egypt and Morocco. Seven states have signed but not yet ratified — Burundi, Chad, Eritrea, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, and Sudan.
The work that follows ratification is domestication — the process by which states translate the Protocol's provisions into national legislation, allocate budget for implementation, build the institutions that enforce its rights, and report periodically to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Domestication is uneven across the continent, and that unevenness is the substantive subject of RFLD's continental advocacy work.
What is ratification?
Ratification is the formal act by which a state establishes, at the international level, its consent to be bound by a treaty it has signed. At the national level, it refers to the constitutional procedure a state takes to express that consent. Accession is the parallel formal act by which a state becomes a party to a treaty it has not previously signed.
Article 28 of the Maputo Protocol provides for countries to sign, ratify, or accede to the Protocol in accordance with their constitutional procedures. The instrument of ratification or accession must be deposited with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, which serves as the continental depositary.
African Union member states have ratified
Twenty-three years on, the Protocol is in force across the majority of the continent. Domestication and implementation remain uneven.
Burundi, Chad, Eritrea, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, Sudan
These states have indicated intent to be bound but have not completed the constitutional procedures required for ratification.
Egypt, Morocco
These two North African states are the only AU members not party to the Protocol in any form.
The detailed tracker.
The full ratification status of the Maputo Protocol, member state by member state. Status is indicated by colour: forest green for ratified, terracotta for signed-not-ratified, rose for neither signed nor ratified. The canonical source for all data is the African Union Treaties Depositary linked above; this table is provided as a working reference.
| Member state | Date of signature | Ratification / accession | Date deposited |
|---|
Three working documents.
To support implementation of the Protocol on the ground, RFLD has published three documents that together cover the policy-assessment, practitioner-guidance, and community-education dimensions of the work. All are available in English and French; the Barometer is the policy-assessment instrument, the Practical Guide is the practitioner reference, and the Illustrated Booklet is the community-education tool.
Maputo Barometer Annual Report
An annual review of the Protocol's implementation, ratification status, and the substantive progress and gaps observed in member states' domestication of women's-rights provisions. The 2026 edition scores forty-nine countries across four AU regions and is published as an interactive web report, in English and French.
Practical Guide to the Maputo Protocol
A working reference for legal practitioners, civil society organisations, parliamentarians, and policymakers — translating the Protocol's provisions into actionable strategies for advocacy, litigation, and legislative reform.
Illustrated Booklet
A visual, accessible educational booklet designed for community awareness work and grassroots mobilisation. The illustrated format makes the Protocol's core provisions legible to readers across literacy levels and educational backgrounds.
The Protocol in four African languages.
International human-rights treaties are typically drafted in colonial languages — English, French, Portuguese, Arabic — which limits the reach of those rights to the women they aim to protect. RFLD has translated and recorded the Maputo Protocol in four indigenous African languages spoken across the Sahel and West Africa: Haoussa, Zarma, Yoruba, and Goun. Each language has both a written translation (PDF) and a professional audio recording hosted on RFLD's SoundCloud — making the Protocol accessible to readers and to listeners alike.
The Maputo Protocol masterclass.
A 70-question quiz covering the articles, rights, ratification history, and provisions of the Maputo Protocol. The questions draw directly from the text of the Protocol and from the AU ratification record. Take it as a self-paced review of the continental framework for African women's rights — twenty-three years in.
Get in touch.
For partnership enquiries on Maputo Protocol implementation work, requests to use RFLD's published materials in your own advocacy, translation collaborations, or research enquiries — please reach the appropriate channel below.