Southern African Leaders Sign Long Awaited Gender Protocol
21 Aug 2008
After three years of negotiation, leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), signed into effect the Protocol on Gender and Development amidst celebration from activists. The document was signed at the SADC Heads of State Summit held on 16 and 17 August in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Protocol, a more binding agreement than the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, which was signed in 1997, has gone through a drafting and approval process that has seen civil society organisations and governments struggling to reach agreement on the critical issues affecting women in the region.
UNIFEM has been closely involved with the SADC Gender Unit and NGO Alliance in the process of drafting the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and will actively participate in advocacy efforts to ensure it is ratified.
The signed Protocol includes several progressive clauses and 23 set targets, including the target that women will hold 50 percent of decision-making positions in the public and private sectors by 2015. According to the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, a grouping of civil society organisations from the region, other key targets include ensuring that provisions for gender equality are contained in all constitutions and include affirmative action clauses. Additional targets are to halve gender based violence, abolish the legal minority status of women enshrined in many of the member states’ constitutions based on the dual legal systems that recognize customary law.
Read More...
Source: UNIFEM
UNIFEM has been closely involved with the SADC Gender Unit and NGO Alliance in the process of drafting the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and will actively participate in advocacy efforts to ensure it is ratified.
The signed Protocol includes several progressive clauses and 23 set targets, including the target that women will hold 50 percent of decision-making positions in the public and private sectors by 2015. According to the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, a grouping of civil society organisations from the region, other key targets include ensuring that provisions for gender equality are contained in all constitutions and include affirmative action clauses. Additional targets are to halve gender based violence, abolish the legal minority status of women enshrined in many of the member states’ constitutions based on the dual legal systems that recognize customary law.
Read More...
Source: UNIFEM
