Women’s movement rejected country’s draft constitution

Zambia: The Women’s movement in Zambia in March rejected the country’s draft constitution noting that it was devoid of women’s rights issues as outlined in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and the AU Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa.

Matrine Chuulu, the Regional Coordinator of Women in Law in Southern Africa (WiLSA) said the women’s movement launched the Green T-Shirt campaign to reject constitutional drafts that are not in line with the provisions provided in the SADC Protocol of Gender and Development. WiLSA regional office leads the Alliance thematic cluster on Constitution and Legal Rights.

“Our movement, called the Green T-Shirt, was launched by the Non-Governmental Organisations’ Coordinating Council and every Wednesday we wear green T-shirts stating Without Women’s Rights -No Constitution.” She went on to say that the draft that was rejected had a claw-back clause that was going to render most of the gender equality provisions useless.

Chuulu said her organisation, WiLSA, has been tasked by the movement to produce a leaflet with information on what should be contained in the constitution.

Zambia’s parliament is currently adjourned and will resume end of May 2011.