Centre for Gender Economics in Africa (CGE Africa) has called for the adoption of Maputo Protocol, ratified by Nigeria in 2005, which seeks the elimination of all discriminations against women.
The protocol, usually referred to as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), according to CGE Africa, remains one of the most progressive legal instruments providing a comprehensive set of human rights for African women.
Executive Director, CGE Africa, Uchenna Idoko, stated this at the consultative meeting to discuss the provisions of the protocol in Lagos.
Idoko said, unlike any other women’s human rights instrument, the Maputo Protocol details wide-ranging and substantive human rights for women covering the entire spectrum of civil and political, economic, social and cultural as well as environmental rights, explaining that it would not be incorrect to name it ‘the African Bill of Rights of Women’s Human Rights.’
Using the protocol for legal advocacy, she said the Maputo Protocol is used as a tool for cases where women’s and girls’ rights have been violated, including cases taken on by Equality Now.
She said activists use the protocol to help get justice, while also training lawyers to use the protocol in litigations.
She added that the protocol is equally used to strengthen women’s rights while also training government officials to implement the protocol.
According to her, it is unfortunate that since the protocol came on board in 2005, it had not been domesticated in Nigeria.
For Oluwatobi Ayodele of Vision Spring Initiative, Nigeria is patriarchal in nature, saying, “In Nigeria, we see the elderly as inactive and not talented.”
She submitted that elderly persons should be able to transfer their talents and get money for them.
