Women urge government to launch public awareness on Maputo protocol

Women leaders have called on the transitional government to undertake public awareness on the Maputo Protocol to enlighten people and government officials about its importance.

“Maputo protocol is actually protecting women rights, we need the implementation of this protocol and we need some funding to disseminate this document particularly to grassroots women and some government officials,” Dorothy Drabuga, the Executive Director for Women Foundation for Humanity said in an interview in Juba on Sunday.

“Our problems is that we have good laws but the problem is when it comes to implementation, I believe the government will take measures to make sure Maputo Protocol is implemented,” she said.

In February, President Salva Kiir assented to four international conventions including the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, the international covenant on civil and political rights, the Maputo protocol and international covenant on economic social and cultural rights.

The Maputo Protocol remains the most comprehensive and progressive instrument on women’s rights, laying out provisions for widows, elderly, women with disabilities and women in distress.

Drabuga said the Maputo Protocol was founded with the mission to ensure the rights of women and girls are protected, adding that the family law needs to be enacted to address most of the issues affecting women.

“As women, we need family law so that womens’ rights will be protecte, we need to see to it that family law is in place,” Drabuga said.