Reflections on ECOWAS Supplementary Act harmonises legislation, policies

At the 47th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of States and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held on May 19, 2015, in Accra, Ghana, a Supplementary Act relating to the equality of rights between women and men for sustainable development in the ECOWAS region was passed.

The amendment covers many thematic areas, including guaranteed individual rights, social, economic and cultural rights, access to justice; matrimonial and family rights; social protection of people living with disabilities; protection of rights of widows, widowers and child protection.

It also covers governance and decision-making, namely representation and participation in electoral processes; education and training; access to education and training; women’s access to employment and financial resources; economic empowerment of women; capacity building for women and men on ECOWAS legal texts relating to rules on inter-regional trade; access to property and resources; equal access to decent employment and related work benefits as well as youth and development. 

Another important thematic area covered by the Act is Gender-Based Violence (GBV), which covers areas such as repression and support to victims, human trafficking, sexual harassment and rape, training of service providers in support of victims of GBV, Health and HIV and AIDS. Focusing more on women’s reproductive health is another important area covered by the Act. The prevention of conflict and its management; media, information and communication; environment, water and sanitation; climate change, as well as agriculture and sustainable development, access to and ownership of lands, women’s participation in decision-making have all been touched on by the Act.

Objectives
The objectives that could be gleaned from the 14 chapters and 53 articles of the Act under reference are:-
• to map out a legal document harnessing all synergies for the harmonisation of national legislation with international commitments to protect and promote women's rights in West Africa;
• to harmonise existing legislation and policies in the ECOWAS region into a single regional instrument that will provide a basis and a common reference for all member states; to increase the rate of women's participation at all levels of decision-making in the different sectors, particularly in the political sphere, notably the processes of conflict prevention and management and the restoration of peace and security;
• to improve the living conditions of vulnerable groups, mainly women, girls and boys, the elderly and persons living with disabilities in line with the demands of sustainable development.

Existing laws in Ghana
As an influential member of ECOWAS, Ghana (along with other member states) is expected to adopt the details of this amendment to make it binding and conform to international law in general and principles of good faith in particular.
Interestingly, most of these thematic areas are already embodied pieces of the existing local laws. A foreseeable difficulty, however, is in respect of governance and decision-making which appears in the third chapter of the Supplementary Act which states as follows:
Article 11: (1) Member States shall institute affirmative action to ensure effective gender equality in decision-making positions in public and private sectors.
Article11 (2) Member States shall take all necessary measures at all levels to demonstrate the essential link between gender-balanced representation, good governance, sustainable democracy and development.
Article 12 (1) Member States shall adopt legislative measures and other strategies to ensure equal participation of women and men in all electoral processes, including the administration of elections and voting;
Article 12 (2) Member States shall ensure equal participation of women and men in the appointment of political representatives and decision-making through the adoption of laws and implementation of policies, strategies and programmes.

To be continued