The director of the Steward Women organization, Josephine Chandiru Drama, on Tuesday, received an award for championing the ratification of the Maputo Protocol in South Sudan.
The award was given in Nairobi Kenya during the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Maputo Protocol on Tuesday.
The Maputo Protocol is one of the world’s most comprehensive and progressive women’s human rights instruments, the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted by Heads of State and Government in Maputo, Mozambique on 11 July 2003.
The 20 for 20 Solidarity Awards seek to recognize and celebrate twenty state and non-state actors who have made exceptional contributions towards the promotion and uptake of the Maputo Protocol at national, regional, and continental levels.
Addressing journalists at Juba International Airport upon arrival from Nairobi on Wednesday, Chandiru described the Maputo protocol as a groundbreaking legal instrument that protects women.
“We were in Nairobi for a whole week doing a lot of events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Maputo protocol and yesterday (Tuesday) marked the climax of the celebration where we received 20 for 20 solidarity awards of the Maputo protocol,” she said. “It is a groundbreaking legal instrument that protects women and it has good provisions to relate to protection in marriage, sexual reproduction rights, and ending harmful cultural practices.”
South Sudan ratified the Maputo Protocol on 24 February 2023 after waiting for nearly 12 years.
Meanwhile, Modi Enosa Baraza, the Executive Director of Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) said as South Sudanese women are excited that one of their own received an award, which portrays their struggles for gender equality.
“One of the impressive things was that our sister Josephine Chandiru got the award for the struggle for the ratification of the Maputo protocol in South Sudan which of course has been there for twelve years,” he said. “We were very happy because, among all these African countries, she is the only one to receive this award.”
“We were so excited and this is a landmark that we South Sudanese women have to put our heads together,” Baraza added.
On 7 June 2023, the minister of gender child and social welfare, Ayaa Benjamin Warile, deposited the instruments of ratification of the Maputo protocol at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
South Sudan became the forty-fourth Member State of the African Union (AU) to ratify the Treaty.
To date, 44 Member States have ratified the Protocol. 11 Member States are yet to ratify, namely Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Somalia, and Sudan.
The African Union Commission (AUC) reiterates its encouragement to all Member States to sign and ratify the Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights.