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NPWJ celebrates a decade of the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women in Africa
NPWJ celebrates a decade of the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women in Africa
African Herald Express, 12 Jul 2013
Declaration by Alvilda Jablonko, FGM Program Coordinator of No Peace Without Justice:
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of a ground-breaking regional legal instrument that enumerates specific measures for the elimination of discrimination against women and addresses a wide range of rights, including the right to dignity, to life, integrity and security of the person, to education and training, to economic and social welfare, to health and reproductive rights, protection during armed conflict and to the elimination of harmful traditional practices.
Crucially, and as a result of the efforts of key activists working towards the elimination of female genital mutilation (FGM) who were tireless during the political process leading up to its adoption, the Maputo Protocol includes Article 5, which explicitly condemns FGM as a violation of women’s rights and calls on AU Member States to adopt specific legislative measures backed by sanctions to prohibit FGM in order to eradicate it. This breakthrough document also paved the way for the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, on 20 December 2012, of the Resolution calling for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation (A/RES/67/146), Article 4 of which owes a great deal to the text of the Maputo Protocol.