Ndubuisi Ugah
15 October 2005
Lagos — Against the backdrop of the rising incidence of human rights violation in the country, the National Assembly has been urged to expedite action in ratifying the African Charter on human and people's rights currently before it.
Speaking at a two-day workshop on the "Domestication and Implementaion of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women", the National Co-ordinator, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), Mrs. Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, said the endorsement of the charter by the National Assembly was long-overdue.
She observed that "mere adoption of an international instrument does not make it applicable in Nigeria unless such instruments are domesticated".
Olateru-Olagbegi, who affirmed that it was on the strength of this that the call for the ratification of the instrument was based upon, said "if Nigeria is to exhibit its sincerity to the promotion and protection of the rights of women, it is imperative that "we domesticate the Protocol on women's rights urgently and ensure that the Protocol, once domesticated is effectively implemented".
She explained that the workshop, which was with the support of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), said the "workshop is a follow up to the process of ensuring not only the ratification but also the implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the rights of Women".
According to her, "the adoption of the Protocol on women's rights is one of the landmark achievement of WILDAF and the African women's movement, which started in 1994, when women realised that there was a lot of gap in the existing instruments, which took into consideration the peculiarities of the African culture in the promotion of the rights of women in Africa".
Olateru-Olagbegi, who is the executive director of WOCON, stressed that "the realisation of this resulted in the conviction that a regional instrument was most necessary to bridge this gap and to protect the rights of women in Africa".
She therefore, hinted that "following a regional instrument consultation with WILDAF and other non-governmental organisations with observer status with the African commission, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACHHRS) and with the support of the government of Togo, a seminar on the ways to better protect the rights of women was held in Togo and recommended that a regional instrument was needed as Protocol to the African Charter on human and people's rights".
"Since then, the journey for the adoption of the Protocol on women's rights began and with intensive lobby by WILDAF at regional level and other networks culminated in the adoption of the Protocol in July 2003 at the African Union Heads of States meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique", she added.
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