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PART 6. IMPLEMENTATION OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS Hundreds of Angolan hold placards and shout slogans as they march to protest against a draft law that would criminalise all abortion, March 18, 2017, in Luanda, Angola. © Ampe Rogerio / AFP. 64. Ratification A number of African States have not yet ratified regional and international instruments to combat sexual violence and its consequences, including the Maputo Protocol, CEDAW and its Optional Protocol. These States are encouraged to immediately ratify all of these instruments without reservation. A. NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON COMBATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE 65. Harmonization of domestic legislation with regional and international instruments Even though many African States have ratified the Maputo Protocol and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), laws in effect continue to discriminate against women and girls and contribute to the perpetuation of sexual violence across the continent. States must review or repeal all legislation and regulations that contain provisions that discriminate against women and girls, and ensure that their domestic legislation is harmonized with the Maputo Protocol and other regional and international instruments for the protection of women’s rights, according to their regional and international obligations. 66. Specific legislation to combat sexual violence 66. 1. States must adopt and apply specific legislation that criminalizes all forms of sexual violence and metes out appropriate punishment to the perpetrators, pursuant to the recommendations outlined in the Part 4 of these Guidelines. States should ensure that this legislation provides a definition of sexual violence that allows for combating it in all its forms. This legislation must also be regularly updated and must contain provisions that provide the following in particular: • measures to prevent sexual violence and its consequences as well as measures to protect and support victims, such as those recommended by these Guidelines in Parts 2 and 3; • rules of civil and criminal procedure that respect the rights and the needs of the victims of sexual violence. 44 GUIDELINES ON COMBATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN AFRICA

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The Guidelines on Combating Sexual Violence and its Consequences in Africa

ACHPR Resources

Document date: Oct 20, 2010

Type of document: Recommendations

Language: English

Thematic Area

Women

Document Summary: The Guidelines on Combating Sexual Violence and Its Consequences in Africa come with explanatory notes. These notes provide references on the sources used, which are the binding and non-binding African regional legal instruments; the jurisprudence of the Commission, its general comments, thematic resolutions and resolutions on specific situations in a given country; and other regional and sub-regional legal and regulatory texts, particularly those adopted by the African Union. The explanatory notes also refer to normative international instruments, such as human rights treaties; specific legislation on the promotion and protection of the rights of women; and the general recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and relevant resolutions of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations. They also refer to texts and tools produced by special human rights protection mechanisms at the international and regional levels, for example the special procedures of the United Nations and the Commission. Finally, these notes draw from the jurisprudence of international courts and other judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms, and from texts on best practices in combating sexual violence and its consequences at the national, regional and international levels.

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The Guidelines on Combating Sexual Violence and its Consequences in Africa

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