Accra — The fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995 raised hopes of a substantial improvement in women's condition across the world and particularly in Africa.

The Beijing Declaration and programme of action considered by the United Nations' Secretary General to be "one of the most remarkable documents ever produced by an intergovernmental conference

"commits States to taking concrete action in twelve priority areas in relation to women's autonomy. Ten years after Beijing and on the heels of the seventh regional conference at Addis Ababa, in evaluating the implementation of the platform of Action adopted there, where are we now? Have African women and girls really made remarkable gains in such essential areas as education, fundamental human rights, violence against women, their participation in decision-making, health and the fight against poverty?

Notable progress but significant challenges remain in education

Education, a fundamental human right for women, is also a tool for transformation and an essential means of implementing egalitarian objectives, development and peace. In ten years of implementation of the Beijing platform, noticeable progress has been made in education and training for women and girls. Effort to bring about universal primary education for all, positive discrimination in favour of women's and girls' education and training in areas apparently reserved for men, and awareness-raising campaigns have had encouraging results.

However, there are still major constraints on equal access to education form men and women.

Cultural practices and stereotypes have a negative influence on access, maintenance and development of girls across the whole school curriculum. Credits allocated are usually insufficient, girls continue to be the object of sexual harassment in educational institutions, as is evidenced by the concept of "sexually transmitted marks" which persists under different appellations in several African countries. These are only a few of the challenges to be faced before women and girls enjoy full human rights in education and training.

Towards the implementation of fundamental human rights for women

The issue of women's rights in Africa has undergone a remarkable change in the legal arena. Almost all African countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a global legal instrument.

In the African region, the appointment of a special rapporteur on women's rights for the first time in 1998 by the former OAU proposed by the African Commission on women's rights was seen as an opportunity to draw greater attention to women's rights. A protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights relating to Women's Rights was adopted in July 2003.

At the national level, most constitutions recognise the same fundamental human rights for all citizens regardless of sex. The last few years have seen legislative measures aimed at global recognition and protection of women's fundamental human rights [ii] .

Women have had access to free legal aid in all countries and volunteers in human rights education under the appellation of paralegals or barefoot legal workers have carried out awareness-raising work on women's rights on the ground. Capacity-building activity relating to those charged with implementing the law has been initiated. There has been considerable progress in this area.

However, many obstacles must still be overcome before women participate in full rights.

Several countries have ratified CEDAW with reservations. The protocol relating to African women's rights has still to receive the required minimum number of ratifications to become applicable. Shouldn't the current difficulties in ratifying this instrument be seen as the sign of a lack of governments' political will? Governments' have now committed themselves once again in July 2004 in Addis Ababa to ratifying the protocol before 2005. What happens at the end of the due date that they themselves have appointed, will definitively settle the question on the existence of political will to promote women's rights. And at the regional level, the first special rapporteur on women's rights as well as the current rapporteur has come up against difficulties in carrying out consistent work to promote women's rights.

At the national level, many laws still have provisions that constitute a veritable denial of women's fundamental rights: Codes on People and Families in almost all African countries confer the monopoly of decision-making power on the male head of the family. The introduction in Mali of the duty of obedience of a woman to her husband illustrates the failure to recognise the power of decision making for women in the family sphere in most African countries. In Togo, a husband has the legal right to forbid his wife from having a separate career. Also in that country, as in many others, traditional forms of inheritance enshrined in law deny women any rights of inheritance. In Senegal and Mali, the legal system authorises Islamic laws of succession under which women are permitted only half the inheritance permitted to their male relatives. Provisions in force in industrial relations sometimes forbid women's participation in certain types of work in certain countries, or permit the registration of women trainees only on production of a medical certificate certifying that they are not pregnant.

In addition to discriminatory provisions there are also gaps in legal systems, which fail to protect women faced with new forms of violation of their rights.

Finally, African women continue in practice to suffer numerous violations of rights, which are, in theory, recognised. In many countries they do not have the same access to justice as men.

The causes of such numerous violations of women's rights are many and complex. There is, of course, ignorance of the law and of their rights on the part of women, but also on the part of men and the different strands of society. This ignorance is aggravated by illiteracy among women. Their poverty is an additional factor contributing to violation of their rights. A negative role is also played by certain holders of judicial and extrajudicial positions (magistrates, lawyers, doctors, police, traditional and religious leaders) intervening in the informal or formal resolution of conflicts. Despite the fact that their mandate constrains them to act to protect the rights of individuals, observation has shown that in many cases they contribute to violations of women's rights. The Global Report on Human Development 2002 confirms this on a section on prejudice against women and legal proceedings.

Two other factors in determining progress in implementing women's rights. They are the lack of political will in States which, despite their commitments, show little enthusiasm in most countries in carrying out concrete reforms; and the influence of religious fundamentalism.

Nonetheless, looking to the future it is vital that certain significant steps are taken towards the implementation of these rights.

Participation in public decision-making: still only a theoretical right?

An important step has been taken in the representation of women in government by countries such as Rwanda, now among world leaders with 48% female members of parliament since 2003. However, the generally poor representation of woman in public decision-making indicates that their participation remains only a theoretical right for African women. Statistics compiled by the Interparliamentary Union are eloquent. In September 2002, at the national level, sub-Saharan Africa came next to last (before the Arab countries whose percentage of women in parliament was 5%) with a total of women in parliament of 13.6%.

Participation in executive power, which was hardly any more impressive, stood at 10% for sub-Saharan Africa [. The same statistics at 31 July 2004 show slight progress in parliamentary representation with an average of 14.4% of all houses combined. These results are hardly surprising when one considers that, even in the private sphere, and particularly within families, decision-making is always accorded to men. It is also the case even when, unusually, families, according to the law, has been headed by the man and woman in partnership.

In general, women in the Continent still live in patriarchal societies where men control decision-making at all levels as well as controlling resources.

Persistence of violence against women, despite some action

Some action is noteworthy in respect of violence against women since Beijing. This consists in the adoption of laws outlawing certain specific forms of violence such as female genital mutilation, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

NGOs have raised awareness among populations about the effects of violence against women and set up coalitions to fight this phenomenon. However, violence against women still persists in the professional and domestic spheres, in the community and in society in many forms: physical, moral and psychological violence, acid baths, female genital mutilation, marital rape, sexual harassment, exploitation of women and girls etc. In many countries forced marriages still continue along with Levirat, despite legal requirement for the consent of both parties to a marriage.

Particular forms of violence such as trafficking in women and girls are increasing in volume in the West African sub-region.

Here again, obstacles are linked to the fact that it is difficult to enforce the law and the resources allocated are inadequate. Social pressure, prejudice and sociocultural inhibitions prevent action from being effective. If one has observed a growing awareness among populations and particularly among men who are beginning to be associated with the fight against violence against women, the road leading to a significant reduction in this type of violence seems a long one.

Health: still too many women dying or facing the scourge of HIV/Aids

In the health arena, the adoption of policies and laws addressing reproductive health issues in particular has facilitated the setting up of programmes designed to allow women a greater enjoyment of their rights and control of their bodies. Nonetheless, figures from the different annual reports on human development up to 2004 have continued to indicate high levels of maternal mortality and incidence of anaemia among pregnant women.

Furthermore, an emerging question in all countries, in relation to health, has been the particular vulnerability of women to HIV/Aids. Different analyses throw into sharp relief the links between violations of women's other rights and their susceptibility to this pandemic. It is no accident that too many women die or have to suffer from HIV/Aids.

Armed conflicts continue to impose a particular burden on women and girls

The increase in situations of armed conflict particularly in Central and West Africa gives rise to and exacerbates specific forms of violence against women. This includes rape and coercion of all kinds, sometimes committed by agents of the State or by humanitarian workers charged with their protection. One positive outcome in limiting this type of violence has been seen in the work of the tribunals in Rwanda and Sierra Leone which have passed judgment on this type of act. But in general this type of reprehensible act remains unpunished.

Women have understood the importance of organising themselves to be more visible in preventive work, during the conduct of conflicts and in post-conflict reconstruction. One example of this is the Network of Women of the Mano River for Peace (MARWOPNET). However, we need to recognise that more effort is needed to enable women's participation on an equal basis with men in the prevention and conduct of war as well as in reconstruction in peacetime.

A context in which poverty has a woman's face

All these facts have as their background a kind of poverty, which increasingly has a woman's face. States has developed several actions and strategies with the objective of reducing poverty, as are evidenced by the numerous action plans undertaken across countries.

Nonetheless, such plans have not been conceived from an egalitarian perspective and they have not been sufficiently sensitive to the problems and strategic interests of women. The action and strategies developed rarely give women control of resources or means of production.

Moreover, structural adjustment programmes and globalisation have exacerbated the poverty of African women. Globalisation reinforces the inegalitarian character of the world economic order while limiting access for women to control of the internal workings of the international market.

There is no doubt at all that the implementation of the Beijing platform of action has failed to meet the expectations of African women. But one of the advantages of the Beijing Conference has been that during ten years women have been able to organise themselves into a genuine lobby group pushing governments to act. At the regional level, the adoption of parity within the Commission of the African Union and the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) and the protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women are examples of what can be won when women are well organised. Similarly, at the national level, feminist pressure groups have succeeded in obtaining important political and legal reforms for women in a variety of countries.

It is now an urgent matter to enlarge these movements and bring states to develop further programmes and take concrete measures, which will make a real difference to the lives of women and girls in Africa.