Investigating the Protection of Women against Violence in the Light of Protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

Protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Women's Rights Protocol or Maputo Protocol), through presenting a pervasive definition of violence against women (VAW) and enumerating its distinctive manifestations, stipulating the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, addressing and prohibiting harmful traditional practices against women, considering the role of education and schools in the eradication of discriminative attitudes against women, protecting women during armed conflicts and supporting elderly and distressed women against all forms of violence and discrimination, emphasizing the criminalization of different types of VAW and punishment of perpetrators by State Parties, and regulating national legislations seeks to prevent and combat VAW in Africa. If fully implemented and integrated into national legislation, the African Women's Protocol offers an effective and strong tool to protect African women against distinguished forms of VAW. The present paper, through a descriptive-analytic approach and by means of a library-based method, aims to answer this question that what has been the role of the Protocol in combating violence against women in African countries.