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….demands full implementation

B y Ebunoluwa Sessou

Center for Gender Economics in Africa, CGE Africa, has called for the adoption of Maputo protocol ratified by Nigeria in 2005, which requires the elimination of all discrimination against women particularly the elderly.

 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, it 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. 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 litigation.

 She said the Protocol is 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 has not been domesticated in Nigeria.

For Oluwatobi Ayodele of Vision Spring Initiative, Nigeria is patriarchal in nature. In Nigeria, we see the elderly as inactive and not talented. But, insists that elderly persons should be able to transfer their talents and get money for them.

For Kehinde of Space for Change, civil society organisations need to collaborate to provide pragmatic policies to encourage aged women.