Source:
Pambazuka
Sign the petition in support of women's rights using your mobile phone!
Africa Mobile phone users rally for women's rights
Also in Choike:
Protocol on the rights of women in Africa
You can now sign the petition in support of women's rights using your mobile phone! Fahamu, the producers of Pambazuka News, have launched an initiative to rally mobile phone users to send SMS’s (Short Message Service/ text messages) in support of a petition for women’s rights in Africa. The petition is hosted on the Pambazuka News website and complements an existing online petition which has already collected nearly 500 signatures.
Mobile phone users in Africa and across the world can now send SMS’s from their mobile phones to sign an online petition in support of a campaign urging African governments to ratify the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which was adopted by the African Union on 11 July 2003. The Protocol offers significant protection for the rights of women in Africa, but has yet to receive the required number of country ratifications to come into force.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time that SMS technologies will have been used on a mass scale on the African continent in support of human rights,” said Firoze Manji, Director of Fahamu, a human rights organisation that developed the facility. “The facility enables those with poor on non-existent internet access to sign the online petition and takes advantage of the fact that there are nearly eight times more mobile phone users compared to email users in Africa.”
Initial testing of the SMS function indicates that it will be possible for mobile phone users to send SMS’s from many countries and mobile phone networks in Africa. “We cannot be certain that people in every country will be able to use this facility, but we think most should be able to,” said Manji.
How to sign the petition by mobile/cell phone
Send a text message from your mobile/cell phone to: +27-832-933-934 with the message: petition your name
For example a message from Gertrude Emokor would say: petition gertrude emokor
How to support the SMS petition
Send text messages to your colleagues and friends alerting them to the petition and informing them how to sign by SMS. You can also use email and word of mouth to help spread the word.
Distribute leaflets about this initiative. We want to reach people with mobile phones who might not have internet access. If you work in a human rights or social justice organisation in Africa, why not volunteer to distribute leaflets for us about the petition to your networks and contacts. Send your details to sms-support@pambazuka.org and we will post you pamphlets to distribute.
Further background
The target of the petition is the ratification and popularisation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa by African Governments. The Protocol covers a broad range of human rights issues and is a comprehensive legal framework that African women can use to exercise their rights. “Once it enters into force the Protocol will be a powerful new tool to achieve equal rights for women in Africa. It could well serve as a model for the rest of the world,” said Faiza Jama Mohamed, Africa Regional Director of Equality Now.
This initiative follows positive responses by African leaders during the recent African Union Executive Council and Assembly meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to a campaign for the ratification of a protocol that enshrines the rights of women. The coalition is spearheaded by the women’s rights organisations Equality Now and FEMNET, together with Oxfam, Credo for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and Fahamu.
African countries have been slow to follow through. So far only three countries, the Comoros, Rwanda and Libya has ratified. Twelve more countries are required for the protocol to come into force. Echoing concerns about the lack of political will on the part of African countries to push forward with ratification, Mary Wandia of FEMNET noted, “Until it comes into force, the rights granted to women in the Protocol will simply remain hypothetical and the tedious lobbying efforts undertaken by civil society groups to ensure that the Protocol reflects a comprehensive list of rights for women will all be wasted.”
Africa currently has 52 million mobile phone users and figures indicate that the continent has caught on to the global SMS fad, with 450 million SMS messages sent in December 2002, compared to 350 million for December 2001, nearly a 30% increase in one year. As one of the fastest growing mobile phone markets, Africa is set to reach 67 million mobile phone users by the end of 2004.
Petition details
1. Those wishing to SMS their support for the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa can do so by sending an SMS to +27-832-933934, with the word ‘petition’ and their name in their message. Senders will be charged the cost set by their network for sending an international SMS. People wishing to subscribe to free SMS alerts can sign up here. The campaign will run until December.
2. The online petition can be signed here.
3. Send questions and queries to sms-support@pambazuka.org
4. Please note that not all mobile phones and networks in Africa will be compatible with this service and that Fahamu does not accept responsibility for failed messages.
This initiative has been made possible through the support of the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, and Oxfam GB.
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