From 19 – 20 August 2025 the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria hosted a two-day ‘Regional Workshop on Enhancing the Ratification and Implementation of the African Disability Protocol’. The workshop brought together stakeholders from various sectors including the disability sector, academia, donor agencies, government, National Human Rights Institutions and civil society from various countries including Eswatini, South Africa, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana.
On 3 May 2024, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa (African Disability Protocol) came into force following the deposit of the 15th instrument of ratification in accordance with its article 38. Adopted by the African Union on 29 January 2018, the African Disability Protocol became the first African human rights instrument focusing exclusively on the rights of persons with disabilities in Africa. The coming into force of the African Disability Protocol has been welcomed by the African disability rights movement as an important step towards the realization of the rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities in Africa. This is primarily because the rights enshrined in the African Disability Protocol are framed with the unique African context and experience in mind. Specifically, the Protocol addresses issues such as customs, traditional beliefs and harmful practices (article 11), self-representation (article 11), the role of family, caregivers and community (article 25), all of which are particularly important in the African context and are not addressed in the disability-specific human rights instrument at the global level, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Although the African Disability Protocol has received the required number of ratifications in order for it to come into force, only 17 African Union (AU) Member States have so far ratified the African Disability Protocol. Ideally, universal ratification is required to ensure that all persons with disabilities on the continent enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with others. Crucially, the increasing number of ratifications by AU Member States creates a need to interrogate strategies for the implementation of the African Disability Protocol to ensure that its provisions have a direct impact on the lives of persons with disabilities in Africa.
Accordingly, the Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria hosted a two-day ‘Regional Workshop on Enhancing the Ratification and Implementation of the African Disability Protocol’ from 19 – 20 August 2025 at Southern Sun Hotel, OR Tambo International Airport. The purpose of the Regional Workshop is two-fold. First to encourage wider ratification of the African Disability Protocol by focusing on the value that its contextualised provisions add to the legislative framework on the rights of persons with disabilities in Africa. Second, to provide a platform for an open dialogue amongst stakeholders from various AU Member States on effective implementation strategies. The workshop brought together stakeholders from various sectors including the disability sector, academia, donor agencies, government, National Human Rights Institutions and civil society from various countries including Eswatini, South Africa, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana. Delegates had the opportunity to explore the rationale for the need for universal ratification of the African Disability Protocol. In addition, the delegates interrogated various strategies that may be used to implement the African Disability Protocol including capacity-strengthening, legislative and policy development and reform, strategic litigation before national courts and AU mechanisms such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ rights amongst others. It is anticipated that the delegates will apply the lessons from the Regional Workshop in their work on promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in their respective countries.
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