By Francis Ameyibor
Algiers (Algeria), Nov. 28, GNA -The African Court on Human and Peoples has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, and Mozambique, which is an effort towards ratifying the Protocol establishing the African Court.
The MOU also seeks to create the necessary legal grounds for the three countries to submit the ratified protocol and the Declaration under Article 34(6) of the Protocol.
Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud, President of the African Court, signed the MOU on behalf of the African Continental Court, while representatives from the three countries signed for their respective nations during the just-ended Sixth African Union Judicial Dialogue in Algiers, Algeria.
Lady Justice Aboud commended the three countries for their efforts, stressing that it confirmed the earlier sensitization mission to the three countries to initiate a constructive dialogue.
The African Court also engaged with relevant human rights stakeholders in the countries on the same.
Meanwhile, a team of experts led by Professor Frans Viljoen, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, has discussed the Maputo Protocol, which seeks to protect African women’s rights on the sidelines of the Sixth African Union Judicial Dialogue in Algiers, Algeria.
The discussion focused on tracing the journey and celebrating a milestone; the Maputo Protocol at 20—an assessment of the past, present, and future; and African Human Rights Jurisprudence on the rights of women and specific challenges to enforcing rights for women in domestic courts.
The panel of speakers include Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa; Justice Elsie Thompson, former Vice President of the African Court; and Prof. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, University of Nigeria.
The panel described the Maputo Protocol as one of the world’s most comprehensive and progressive women’s human rights instruments—the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (‘the Maputo Protocol’)—adopted’by Heads of State and Government in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 11, 2003.
The Protocol guarantees extensive rights to African women and girls and includes progressive provisions on harmful traditional practices—child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM); and reproductive health and rights.
The experts also discussed women’s roles in political processes, economic empowerment, and ending violence against women.
It was also disclosed that since the Maputo Protocol came into force in 2005, 49 of the 55 African Union Member States have signed on, and 42 have ratified it.
The experts also revealed that the Maputo Protocol is used as a tool for cases where women’s and girls’ rights have been violated.
GNA