Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Africa Woman's Day

From VOA News:
2010 to 2020 has been adopted by the African Union as the African Women's Decade. On Saturday, women from around the world met in London to celebrate African Women's Day.

About 100 women from Britain and Africa came together to pay tribute to the progress made for women's rights in Africa during recent years.

Marie-Claire Faray-Kele is from the Women's International League for Peace, which organized the event in London. She says the African Union declaration that 2010-2020 is the African Women's Decade means African states need to take action regarding women's rights.

She says her group wanted to use Africa Women's Day to highlight an important piece of African Union legislation, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women. It is better known as the Maputo Protocol and came into force in 2005.

The Protocol requires states to eliminate sexual violence, discrimination and other harmful practices against women, including female genital mutilation. It also gives women control of their own reproductive health and the right to inherit property.

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