A critique of the rhetoric, ambivalence, and promise in the protocol to the African charter on human and people’s rights on the rights of women in Africa

Fighting for women’s rights is a positive struggle which recognizes the quality of women’s contribution to every aspect of the community... I therefore invite all to renew their energies in undertaking practical and creative initiatives to achieve full respect of the human rights of women. Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2001).

Abstract

The desire to formulate a viable treaty framework for women’s rights that will meet the challenges of the sociocultural peculiarities in Africa led to the emergence of the original draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in the twilight years of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Without doubt, the recent adoption of the African Women’s Protocol by the Assembly of African Heads of State and Government in July 2003 is a welcome development coming at a most opportune time. However, if the African Women’s Protocol is to serve its purposes in an effective way, it is absolutely necessary to articulate the normative and structural modalities that would secure the achievement of its stated ends. It is therefore in the quest for defining the strategic parameters of this new-fangled instrument that I analyze the normative promises as well as notable structural and conceptual limitations inherent in the African Women's Protocol with a view to identifying trajectories for its sustained relevance and viability. I address these concerns against the backdrop of the instrument’s provisions.