The SOAWR Coalition annual review meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from 5th-7th October was attended by over 40 participants from 15 countries. This year’s theme was, “Spreading Our Wings: A Multi-Sectoral Approach to Women’s Rights’’. The main objectives of the meeting included a progress review of the 2008/2009 year, sharing of the best practices in the year, strategising on the African Women’s Decade from 2010-2020 and setting the framework for the next strategic plan.
The articles first appeared in the prize-winning weekly electronic newsletter, Pambazuka News. They provide students, activists and others with an easy-to-read introduction to the struggle for women’s rights in Africa.
The groundbreaking Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on Women’s Rights came into force in 2005. The protocol commits the states that sign it to eliminating all forms of discrimination against women.
What gains and what challenges do we have two years after the entry into force of the Protocol? This is the overall question that the various articles presented in this special issue of Pambazuka aim at addressing. What clearly emerges is that the challenges outweigh the gains made so far.
Ahead of a conference co-convened by the African Union (AU) and SOAWR and held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between 27 and 30 September, this edition consists of editorials written by SOAWR members and updates about the progress of the campaign from across the African continent.
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The pan-African campaign to mobilise support for the ratification of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples. Rights on the rights of women in Africa was initiated by the women.s rights organisations Equality Now and FEMNET, together with Credo for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, Oxfam GB and Fahamu, publishers of Pambazuka News.
