24 Sept | Online event ! Reflections on three decades of struggle to secure women’s property rights at divorce - General Comment 7(d) of the Maputo Protocol

This Thursday 24 September, a group of civil society organizations lead by the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) is convening an online side event alongside the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) with key experts, practitioners and members of civil society to discuss the recently adopted General Comment on Article 7 (d) of the Maputo Protocol.

When?

24 September 2020, | 13:00 – 15:00 GMT

How?

or on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Aw-7FpMySlCyhoanOmp9pg

What?

The General Comment further develops regional human rights standards, specifically looking at women’s rights to property in cases of separation, divorce, or annulment of marriage. In it, the ACHPR recognizes that separation, divorce or annulment of marriage, have specific economic consequences for women, and that many countries in Africa continue to apply discriminatory laws, policies and practices which continue to systematically disadvantage women.

Organizations working globally and throughout Africa advocated for several years in support of the General Comment, hoping that it will lead to the clarification of various legal issues pertaining to women’s rights to property and in turn to the improvement of the ways in which women are treated across the continent. The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would like to acknowledge and express deep gratitude to Mayra Gomez, former Executive Director of GI-ESCR for her decade-long leadership, and advocacy work on this crucial question for women’s equal rights and the advancement of gender justice.

In this panel, experts will provide their insights on the process that have culminated in the General Comments, reflecting on key moments like the HIV struggle and tenure reform processes that shaped the debate over the past three decades on women’s property rights. In 2020, with widening inequalities and amounting threats to land and property rights, the panel will seek to respond: “Where to from here?”

PANELISTS