Abstract:
The article examines the results of and insights from the Pretoria Gender
Expert Meeting which was convened with the primary purpose of developing
state reporting guidelines under the African Women’s Protocol. The
focus of the article is the draft guidelines that were adopted at the end of
the meeting, and the process and deliberations that yielded that draft. The
Pretoria Draft Guidelines clears up the uncertainty regarding how a report
under the Protocol should be grafted into a report under the African Charter
in terms of article 26 of the Women’s Protocol. As a set of guidelines,
it seeks to achieve clarity and precision in three ways: by requiring states
to report in terms of a list of measures of implementation; by drawing a
clear distinction in the nature of information required in respect of first
and subsequent reports; and by grouping the provisions of the Protocol
into thematic clusters for reporting purposes. In the final analysis, it is
concluded that the Pretoria Draft Guidelines provide a promising platform
for the invigoration of the African Commission’s state reporting mechanism
and, by extension, the promotion and protection of women’s rights
in Africa. However, it has been noted that the effectiveness and impact of the reporting guidelines (and that of the reporting system as a whole)
will depend on at least three other factors: the effective dissemination of
the guidelines; the harmonisation of reporting guidelines; and the general
reform of the African Commission’s reporting mechanism.
