The Maputo Protocol guaranteeing comprehensive rights to women was adopted by the AU on 11 July 2003, in Maputo, Mozambique. Following its adoption, AU Member States in the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa adopted in July 2004, undertook to sign and ratify the Maputo Protocol by the end of 2004, support the launching of the public campaign aimed at ensuring its entry into force by 2005, and to usher in an era of domestication and implementation of the Protocol, as well as, other national, regional and international instruments on gender equality by all States Parties. In the AU Gender Policy, Member States undertook to achieve full ratification and enforcement of the Maputo Protocol by 2015 and its domestication by 2020
