The objective of the seminar was to discuss and identify concrete avenues for engendering reconstruction and peace processes in African societies emerging from conflict through a thorough and effective use of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Women’s Protocol). Sixteen years after the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1979, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and civil society organisations working on women’s rights agreed to prioritize the adoption of a Protocol to the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Following several obstacles, the draft Protocol was put on the agenda of the second ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government and adopted in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique. The adoption of the Protocol was accompanied by intensive lobbying by women’s groups and human rights activists for
ratification and implementation. These efforts resulted in the Protocol’s entry into force in November 2005. The Protocol highlights prevalent discrimination against women and the negative impact of poverty; HIV/AIDS; harmful traditional practices; the persistence of violence against women in society; women’s exclusion from politics and decision-making; illiteracy; and limited access of girls to education. A critical component of the Protocol is also its focus on the protection of women and girls in situations of armed conflicts and post-conflict reconstruction processes.
