Continental Story · 11 of 12
The Maputo Protocol
at twenty
Adopted in Maputo on 11 July 2003 and in force since 25 November 2005, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa is the most comprehensive women’s-rights instrument in any regional system. Twenty years on, 46 of 55 AU member states have ratified — the Central African Republic became the 46th on 29 July 2025.
By African Renaissance Trust · Status as of 28 August 2025 · Source: University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights · Amnesty International
The Maputo Protocol is the African continent’s most ambitious legal statement on women’s rights. It guarantees rights to life and dignity, to political participation, to inherit property on equal terms with men, to consent to marriage, to economic and social welfare, and — most consequentially in litigation — to "medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus" (Article 14.2.c).
46/55
AU member states that have ratified7
Signed but not yet ratified2
Neither signed nor ratified — Egypt and Morocco2025
CAR ratification — the 46th and most recent (29 July 2025)
The geography of ratification
The map below colours every AU member state in one of three categories: ratified, signed only, or neither. The remaining gap is concentrated in two clusters: a Saharan / Sahelian belt where ratification has stalled (Sudan, Chad, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Burundi — all signatories who have not deposited instruments of ratification), and two North African non-signatories (Egypt and Morocco). Madagascar sits on its own as a signed-only outlier in the Indian Ocean.
Interactive map — Maputo Protocol ratification status (Aug 2025). Green = ratified · Amber = signed only · Red = neither.
From signature to substance
Ratification is necessary, not sufficient. Of the 46 states that have ratified, only a subset has fully domesticated the Protocol — incorporated its provisions into national law in a way that creates an enforceable cause of action for women in their own courts. The SOAWR Coalition (Solidarity for African Women’s Rights) and the Pan-African Lawyers Union have tracked this gap for two decades; their work, and that of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, increasingly cites the Protocol as binding law.
Ratification is the start line, not the finish. The work of donors, philanthropic partners and advocacy networks is to convert ratification into enforceable, lived rights for African women.
Reservations and the abortion question
Some ratifications carry reservations — typically against Article 14 (reproductive health), Article 6 (consent to marriage), or Article 21 (right of widows to an equitable share of inheritance). The most public reservations historically came from Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Cameroon and Mauritius on different provisions, and several have since been withdrawn. The continental status table maintained by the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights is the canonical reference for reservations.
What the data does not show
This map can tell you whether a country has ratified. It cannot, on its own, tell you whether women in that country can secure a safe abortion under Article 14, run for parliament under Article 9, or inherit on equal terms under Article 21. For that, cross-reference with the vault’s Gender Equality layer (UNDP GII, IPU Parline women in parliament, maternal mortality, female labour-force participation) — and read the Protocol itself.
