South Sudan: female parliamentarians push for ratification of Maputo protocol

By Simon Deng

Women Member of Parliament in South Sudan are demanding for the ratification of the Maputo protocol which set out protection from harmful practices including protection from child marriage and entitlement to property, Mary Nawai Martin, the Minister for Parliamentary affairs said.

“Maputo is very important for our country because it influenced tangible decisions not for women alone but for the whole society, it give us important opportunity and equality rights and also rights to have a peaceful society,” said Martin.

“When we respect women rights, we respect rights for the world,” she told journalists during the symposium to raise awareness on the rights of women enshrined in the Maputo Protocol.

“South Sudanese women need peace and we do not want our girls to be married at earlier age and we also need protection,” she said.

Maputo protocol on women’s rights is an African regional treaty affirming women’s rights to exercise self-determination and bodily autonomy free of discriminations, coercion and violence.

The said Protocol was tabled and passed by the transitional national legislative assembly in 2017 but further engagements on total ratification of Maputo protocol in south Sudan have faded away

Doru Josephine Pitia, the program coordinator for South Sudan women empowerment network said that the ratification of the protocol has long been delayed, noting that needs Maputo protocol to be ratified into the country’s constitution.

“We need Maputo protocol to be ratified into the laws of our country, we have not yet fully succeeded as expected, we are in a world where women are not always recognized, we are not going to give up.”