Ghost of Maputo Protocol hangs over African Synod

[didymus]

NCR (John Allen):

Ghost of Maputo Protocol hangs over African Synod

One thread running through the Oct. 4-25 Synod for Africa has been alarm about a perceived assault on the family, and upon traditional African morality, stemming from Western non-governmental organizations and international bodies.

Archbishop Joseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg, for example, president of the Southern Africa bishops’ conference, told the synod on Oct. 8 that Africa is “under heavy strain from liberalism, secularism, and from lobbyists who squat at the United Nations.” Archbishop Robert Sarah of Guinea, currently the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, condemned a Western “theory of gender” which he said is trying to push Africa “to write laws favorable to … contraceptive and abortion services (the concept of ‘reproductive health’) as well as homosexuality.”

For anyone curious as to what the bishops have in mind, just three words will do the trick: The Maputo Protocol.

Technically known as “The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa,” but called the “Maputo Protocol” because it was adopted during a 2003 summit in the Mozambique capital city, the text is an adjunct to a charter of the African Union on human rights. Elaborated in twenty-five articles, it guarantees a host of rights to Africa’s women, such as social and political equality, voting rights, and an end to genital mutilation.
The protocol legally came into force on November 25, 2005, after having been ratified by the required fifteen member states of the African Union.