Special rapporteur on rights of women in africa
Soyata Maiga
- The Special Rapporteur on Rights of Women in Africa was established by the African Commission in 1998 during the 23rd Ordinary Session.
- The current Special Rapporteur is Soyata Maiga, who has held this position since 2007 and was reappointed during the 50th Ordinary Session in 2011.
The responsibilities of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa include:
- promoting the protection of the rights of women within the African Commission,
- assisting African governments in developing and implementing policies that promote and protect the rights of women,
- undertaking "promotional and fact-finding missions in African countries...in order to disseminate the human rights instruments of the African Union and to investigate on the situation of women's rights in the countries visited,"
- monitoring the implementation of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and its Protocol Relative to the Rights of Women in Africa,
- drafting "resolutions on the situation of women in the various African countries" and proposing them to the Commission
- comparing the situation of rights of women in the countries of Africa,
- "collaborating with relevant actors responsible for the promotion and protection of the rights of women internationally, regionally, and nationally," including national governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and other Rapporteurs
Click Here for Soyata Maiga's Intersession Report for the 49th Commission on Human and Peoples Rights
In this report, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the African Union "urge Member states to ratify and/or accelerate the ratification process of the Maputo Protocol." For Member States that have already ratified the Protocol, she urges them to implement its articles and submit their Periodic Reports.
- Special Rapporteur on Rights of Women. African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.achpr.org/mechanisms/rights-of-women/about/>.