The States Parties to this Protocol,
CONSIDERING that Article 66 of the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights provides for special protocols or agreements, if
necessary, to supplement the provisions of the African Charter, and that
the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of
African Unity meeting in its Thirty-first Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, in June 1995, endorsed by resolution AHG/Res.240 (XXXI) the
recommendation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’
Rights to elaborate a Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa;
CONSIDERING that Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights enshrines the principle of non-discrimination on the
grounds of race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or
any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status;
FURTHER CONSIDERING that Article 18 of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights calls on all States Parties to eliminate every
discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights
of women as stipulated in international declarations and conventions;
NOTING that Articles 60 and 61 of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights recognise regional and international human rights
instruments and African practices consistent with international norms on
human and peoples’ rights as being important reference points for the
application and interpretation of the African Charter;
RECALLING that women’s rights have been recognised and guaranteed
in all international human rights instruments, notably the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol, the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and all other international
and regional conventions and covenants relating to the rights of women
as being inalienable, interdependent and indivisible human rights;
4
Protocol to the African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights on the
Rights of Women in Africa