The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, known as the Maputo Protocol, is an international Human Rights Instrument established by the African Union and went into effect in 2005. This Instrument guarantees comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political equality, control of women’s reproductive health, and ending female genital mutilation. The Maputo Protocol is also a response to the limitations African governments saw in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979 which neglects some of the social-cultural and economic realities facing African Women. Through Maputo’s Protocol’s 32 Articles, the AU has defined an explicit framework for the social, cultural, economic, political, and legal rights of women on the continent. These include women’s right to peace as well as women’s right to protection against all forms of violence in armed conflict. It specifies that perpetrators should be brought to justice before a competent criminal court. Date of last signature, September 17 2019, and it was entered into force November 25th 2005
