This manual promotes the use of the groundbreaking human rights instrument, the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which is a supplementary protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is renowned for its strong and comprehensive provisions on women’s rights. For the first time in international law, it explicitly sets forth the reproductive right of women to medical abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother. In another first, the Protocol explicitly calls for the legal prohibition of female genital mutilation (FGM). It also specifies 18 years as the minimum age for marriage and promotes equal representation of women in the judiciary and law enforcement as well as at all levels of decision-making.
