Campaigning organisation Fahamu is using SMS text messages to collect support for the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. All you have to do is send a message with the word "petition" and your name in the message to +27832933934. You will only be charged the cost set by your network provider for sending an international SMS.

According to Firoze Manji of Fahamu: "Mobile phone users in Africa and across the world can now send SMS's from their mobile phones to sign an online petition in support of a campaign urging African governments to ratify the African Union's Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which was adopted by the African Union on 11 July 2003. The Protocol offers significant protection for the rights of women in Africa, but has yet to receive the required number of country ratifications to come into force".

"To our knowledge, this is the first time that SMS technologies will have been used on a mass scale on the African continent in support of human rights," said Firoze Manji, Director of Fahamu, a human rights organisation that developed the facility. "The facility enables those with poor on non-existent internet access to sign the online petition and takes advantage of the fact that there are nearly eight times more mobile phone users compared to email users in Africa."

Initial testing of the SMS function indicates that it will be possible for mobile phone users to send SMS's from many countries and mobile phone networks in Africa. "We cannot be certain that people in every country will be able to use this facility, but we think most should be able to," said Manji.

HOW TO DO IT

Send a text message from your mobile/cell phone to: +27-832-933-934 with the message: petition your name
For example a message from Gertrude Emokor would say: petition gertrude Emokor

HOW TO SUPPORT THE SMS PETITION

Send text messages to your colleagues and friends alerting them to the petition and informing them how to sign by SMS. You can also use email and word of mouth to help spread the word.

Distribute leaflets about this initiative. We want to reach people with mobile phones who might not have internet access. If you work in a human rights or social justice organisation in Africa, why not volunteer to distribute leaflets for us about the petition to your networks and contacts. Send your details to sms-support@pambazuka.org and we will post you pamphlets to distribute.

You can also sign up for the petition online at:
http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1

The initiative has been supported by IDRC and Oxfam.

To African Union Heads of State

Your Excellencies:

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

We the undersigned write to you regarding the ratification of the Protocol on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa by member states of the African Union and urge your Excellencies to ensure the fast tracking of its ratification by your respective governments by the next Heads of States Summit in July 2004.

As you will recall, the Protocol was adopted in July 2003 during the Second Ordinary Session of the Heads of States held in Maputo. Its adoption was celebrated by African women, women's and human rights organizations in Africa and the diaspora as a major step towards finally securing a legal and rights framework for the protection and advancement of the human rights of African women.

However, one month before its first anniversary only 29 of the AU's 53 member states have signed the Protocol and only one (Comoros) has ratified it. This record undermines the stated intention of African governments to protect and promote the rights of all their peoples.

Many women and their families experience social, cultural and economic rights abuses and political discrimination on a daily basis. Physical violence, vulnerability to life-threatening diseases most notably HIV/AIDS, poor educational opportunities and legal barriers around rights to property combine to keep women in Africa as second class citizens as well as inhibiting their ability to contribute fully to the prosperity of the continent.

Our call for the urgent ratification of the Protocol by all countries of the African Union deserves your serious consideration. Ratification will send a clear signal that women and men can and should enjoy equal rights and responsibilities. This enjoyment, in turn, will realise benefits to the whole of the continent.

We in civil society share the dream of the Heads of States that Africa's social, economic and political well-being rests on enabling women's resourcefulness at this time. We trust therefore that you will recognize the urgency of the situation and will facilitate the speedy ratification of the Protocol thereby completing the good work that your Excellencies began in Maputo last year.

Yours Sincerely

African Women's Development & Communication Network (FEMNET)
Credo for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, Rotimi Sankore - Coordinator
Equality Now, Faiza Jama Mohamed - Africa Regional Director
Fahamu, Firoze Manji - Director
Oxfam GB, Irungu Houghton - Pan-African Policy Adviser

I urge all African States to ratify the Protocol immediately; because African women's rights cannot be postponed as any human rights cannot be postponed.
Graça Machel

The following organisations are campaigning for the ratification of the protocol;
UNFD - Union Nationale des Femmes Djiboutiennes, National Human Rights Committee (Djibouti), ACDHRS - African Centre For Human Rights and Democracy Studies (The Gambia), CPTAFE - Cellule de Coordination sur les Pratiques Traditionelles Affectant la Sante des Femmes et fes Enfants, (Guinea), COVAW Coalition on Violence Against Women (Kenya), AJM - Association des Juristes Maliennes (Mali), FDC - Fundacao Para O Desenvolvimento Da Comunidade (Mozambique), Sister Namibia (Namibia), WRAPA - Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (Nigeria), Centre for Human Rights University of Pretoria (South Africa) WiLDAF - Women and Law in Development - West Africa (Togo/West Africa), AMwA - Akina Mama wa Afrika (Uganda), WiLDAF Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche en Droits de l'Homme et Démocratie - Centre for Human Rights & Democracy Studies and Research (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Zimbabwe's Women Acting Against AIDS

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination, writes ISABELLA MATAMBANADZO. “The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.”

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22725