Gabon signed the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (The Maputo Protocol) on the 27th of January 2005 and ratified it on the 10th of January, 2011. Considered as the most prosperous and stable country in Africa, Gabon gained its independence in 1960 from France. Former Omar Bongo is considered as the longest serving president in the world. He dominated the country’s political scene for four decades until his death in June 2009. His son, Ali Bongo, won the 2009 elections. Polygamy remains a tradition that is still practiced