Advocacy for the Ratification and Implementation of the AU Protocol
SYNOPSIS On the 11th of July 2003, The African Union (AU) Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted. It is also known as the ‘Maputo Protocol’ alluding to the city where it was adopted, or the African Women’s Protocol (hereafter referred to as the Protocol). The Protocol addresses comprehensively, for the first time, women’s human rights in Africa and state obligations to uphold, protect and promote them. The Protocol enumerates a broad range of women’s rights, including the elimination of discrimination against women, the right to dignity, the