{"id":2131,"date":"2025-09-01T09:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:59:11","slug":"diwa-lobbies-the-african-union-gender-disability-commute-to-encourage-states-to-ratify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/diwa-lobbies-the-african-union-gender-disability-commute-to-encourage-states-to-ratify\/","title":{"rendered":"DIWA lobbies the African Union Committee on Gender, Family, Youth People with Disability to Advance Ratification of the African Disability Protocol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Johannesburg, South Africa \u2013 May 2022<\/strong><br>Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA) continues its continental advocacy to ensure that the <strong>African Disability Protocol (ADP)<\/strong> moves from aspiration to full implementation. In a high-level engagement with the <strong>African Union Committee on Gender and Disability<\/strong>, DIWA called on the Committee to <strong>encourage Member States to urgently ratify and domesticate the Protocol<\/strong> as a matter of human rights, inclusion, and social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ADP, adopted by the African Union in 2018, provides a <strong>regionally grounded legal framework<\/strong> to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities in Africa. It complements the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by addressing <strong>African-specific challenges<\/strong> such as harmful practices, poverty, conflict, and discrimination faced by women and girls with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the meeting, DIWA emphasized the <strong>urgency of accelerating ratification and implementation<\/strong>, highlighting that fewer than half of AU Member States have ratified the Protocol. DIWA\u2019s Executive Director, <strong>Ruth Mkutumula<\/strong>, reaffirmed that <em>\u201cratifying the ADP is not only a legal obligation, it is a moral commitment to ensure that Africa\u2019s development is inclusive, equitable, and leaves no one behind.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She further stressed that <strong>gender and disability inclusion<\/strong> are inseparable in the realization of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. <em>\u201cWomen and girls with disabilities continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination,\u201d<\/em> she said. <em>\u201cThe ADP offers a powerful instrument to guide States in creating laws, policies, and programs that respond to these realities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The meeting concluded with a renewed call for collaboration between the AU Committee, governments, and civil society organizations. DIWA committed to working closely with the Committee and other continental actors, including the <strong>African Disability Forum (ADF)<\/strong> and <strong>Inclusion Africa,&nbsp;<\/strong>to track progress, share data, and ensure women\u2019s voices remain central to advocacy for ratification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cOur goal is simple,\u201d Ruth added. \u201cEvery African country must ratify and implement the ADP. The time for promises is over\u2014the time for action is now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FB_IMG_1749555669329-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FB_IMG_1749555669329-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FB_IMG_1749555669329-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FB_IMG_1749555669329-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FB_IMG_1749555669329.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johannesburg, South Africa \u2013 May 2022Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA) continues its continental advocacy to ensure that the African Disability Protocol (ADP) moves from aspiration to full implementation. In a high-level engagement with the African Union Committee on Gender and Disability, DIWA called on the Committee to encourage Member States to urgently ratify and domesticate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2226,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.shakesolutions.net\/diwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}