Recommendation on Situation of the Rights of Women in Africa
We, the participants of the NGO Forum preceding the 41st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the 15th African Human Rights Book Fair, held from 12 -14 May ,2007 at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Accra, Ghana,
Considering the continued violations of the rights of women in Africa through the existence of harmful traditional practices and discriminatory laws;
Recalling the commitments of the Heads of States and Governments under international and regional instruments including the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the Beijing platform for Action, the CEDAW;
Concerned that the Heads of States and Governments continue in their failure to respect these obligations;
Recommend to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to:
1. Facilitate the intervention of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women on the situation of women refugees in Chad from Darfur;
2. Urge member states to sign, ratify and implement the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa;
3. Further urge the member states to effectively address the issue of impunity in so far as it relates to the rights of women in Africa especially the situation of slave women in Mauritania;
4. Call upon member states to make affirmative action a practical reality and to ensure respect for the quotas set to ensure enhance political participation of women;
5. Further call upon the member states to take immediate steps to effectively address the inequalities that impede on women’s rights in Africa;
6. Impress upon the member states to take appropriate measures to ensure the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation and other harmful traditional practices that are undermining the development of girls and women in Africa;
7. Renew the call to the member states to respect their commitments to the women of Africa including those made under the Beijing Platform for Action, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality In Africa and the CEDAW.
Done in Accra, May 14th, 2007
