PART B: Substantive Norms on Torture in the African Regional Human Rights System 2. The Prohibition of Torture in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa Like the ACRWC, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (‘African Women’s Rights Protocol’) complements Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights by addressing aspects of the prohibition of torture that are specific to women, namely: the right to dignity, the prohibition of harmful traditional practices and violence against women. The Protocol defines harmful traditional practices as ‘all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such as their right to life, health, dignity, education and physical integrity’.293 Violence against women is defined by the Protocol as follows: Acts perpetrated against women which cause or could cause them physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to take such acts; or to undertake the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peace time and during situations of armed conflicts or of war.294 This definition makes clear that under this Protocol, the prohibition against torture may encompass treatment inflicted by State actors as well as non-State entities. The Protocol prohibits harmful traditional practices and violence against women and requires States Parties to prohibit, prevent, punish and eradicate them.295 The Protocol assures the dignity of women and requires States Parties to adopt ‘appropriate measures to ensure the protection of every woman’s right to respect for her dignity and protection of women from all forms of violence, particularly sexual and verbal violence’.296 Such measures may include legislative, administrative, social, educational, or economic measures, criminal prosecution and sanctions, services for rehabilitation and treatment of victims, budgetary provisions for expansion of social services or other policy measures.297 In situations of armed conflict, including internal armed conflict, States Parties to the African Women’s Rights Protocol agree to respect international humanitarian law applicable to the protection of women from prohibited forms of violence, including sexual violence, rape and other forms of sexual exploitation as 293 294 295 296 297 African Women’s Rights Protocol, supra note 22, Article 1. Ibid. Ibid., Article 4-5. Ibid., Article 3(4). Ibid., Article 4. 71