The African Charter is a regional human rights instrument specifically designed to reflect the history, values, traditions and development of Africa. Accordingly, the Charter seeks to combine African values with international norms by not only promoting internationally recognized individual rights, but also by proclaiming collective rights and individual duties. These include the right to self- determination and to full sovereignty over natural resources, the right to peace and to a satisfactory environment favourable to a people's development, and the duty of individuals to their family, community and state.
African women are absolutely essential to the survival of their families, communities and nations.
Not only do they form more than 50 per cent of the African population, but they also constitute the majority of entrepreneurs in the informal sector, they head more than half of African rural households, and they perform the bulk of the agricultural labour. It follows that a lack of investment in the well-being of women undermines efforts to achieve broader social, political and economic goals. This means that the protection of women s rights is absolutely crucial. Women s groups and other organisations working in the human rights sphere do not regard these provisions as adequate to address the rights of women. For example, while Article 18 prohibits discrimination against women, it does so only in the context of the family.