Policy Research on the Africa Women’s Protocol

On 11 July 2003, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. The Protocol is potentially a powerful force for positive change in the lives of African Women. However if this potential is to be realised, advocates for women’s rights and gender equality must take deliberate action to ensure its popularisation, ratification, domestication, implementation, and monitoring. With this in mind, Oxfam GB Southern Africa, commissioned a study to strengthen the popularisation and mobilisation campaign on the Protocol in 2004. The objectives of the study were to: make a comparative analysis of the Protocol and other relevant regional and international instruments as well as national legislation of the three countries to determine how the Protocol contributes to the existing framework for gender equality; analyse the national situation and the implications of the Protocol in the three countries in three thematic areas; identify challenges, best practices, and lessons learnt; make recommendations on popularising the Protocol and promoting its implementation. The study was conducted at national and regional level. The countries studied were Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. The methodology included a literature review, interviews, and questionnaires.