Show Your Solidarity

African women’s rights organizations are leading an innovative and energetic campaign to get more countries to ratify the protocol. Show your solidarity with them by writing to African heads of state to urge them to ratify the protocol. Their addresses are available here.

Sample letter:

Re: Protocol on Women’s Rights

Your Excellency:

I write to urge your government to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol) and to take immediate steps to enforce it. Women in your country deserve no less than full equality, and ratifying the Protocol is an important step toward that goal.

The Protocol sets out specific human rights protections aimed at promoting gender equality and ending violence against women. It thus represents a critically important development for women’s rights in Africa. In addition, by promoting women’s rights to property, reproductive health, participation in peace processes and reconstruction, labor rights, rights in the family, and other human rights, the Protocol will advance efforts to promote peace and development and combat poverty, disease (including HIV/AIDS), and food scarcity in Africa.

To support the human rights of all African women, I urge you to put ratification of the Protocol high on your agenda.

Sincerely,

/s/