Policy Brief: REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA’S RESERVATIONS TO THE MAPUTO PROTOCOL

This policy brief makes a case for South Africa to lift its reservations to the Maputo Protocol. South Africa, together with other African Union Members, committed to the universal ratification, full domestication and implementation of the Maputo Protocol by 2020. This policy brief justifies the proposed lifting of South Africa’s reservations through interpretation of Article 31 of the Maputo Protocol that gives precedence to national laws in instances where such laws provide more favourable protection of women’s rights than the Protocol provisions. South Africa has fully complied with the Maputo Protocol provisions and, on some rights, has gone beyond the Protocol provisions. As such, the reservations made by the government of South Africa do not serve the purport of reservations in terms of international treaty law.