E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 23 C. Regional experience 80. It is within an essentially African context that efforts have been pursued to improve and develop legal instruments on the issue of women’s status in the light of harmful cultural traditions. 1. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 81. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, adopted in July 1990 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government at its twenty-sixth session, held in Addis Ababa, contains many provisions to safeguard the status of girls in the light of traditions. Article 16 protects children from “all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse”. 82. The Charter focuses particularly on the issue forming the subject of the present study. Article 21, entitled “Protection against harmful social and cultural practices”, specifically refers, albeit for illustrative purposes only, to “harmful social and cultural practices affecting the welfare, dignity, normal growth and development of the child”. In paragraph 1 (a) of that article, States are required to take appropriate measures to eliminate “customs and practices prejudicial to the health or life of the child”, such as female genital mutilation and other practices common in the African continent (see chapter II below). The Charter not only refers specifically to the prevention of early child marriage and the prohibition of the betrothal of girls but also indicates ways and means of implementing such protection: “effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years and make registration of all marriages in an official registry compulsory” (art. 21, para. 2). The text is not confined to those practices but refers, in general terms, to “customs and practices discriminatory to the child on the grounds of sex or other status” (art. 21, para. 1 (b)). However, taking a conciliatory approach, the Charter, in many of its provisions, places emphasis on preserving and strengthening “African cultural values ... in the spirit of tolerance, dialogue and consultation” (art. 31, para. (d)). It cites, as sources of inspiration, not only relevant global and regional instruments (the Universal Declaration, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, other United Nations instruments, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, etc.) but also “African values and traditions” (art 46). 2. Draft protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa 83. The adoption of this draft by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in November 1999 arose out of the realization that the 1981 African Charter guaranteed inadequate protection to women.85 That text simply recommended to States parties that they should “ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the woman and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions” (art. 18, para. 3). The specific problems facing African women, especially traditional practices injurious to their status, were thus not taken into consideration. In relation to the subject of the present study, the draft protocol appears to distinguish between positive and negative African values and requires that women contribute, on a basis of equality with men, to the preservation of traditions that respect the rights of women based on principles of equality and dignity, justice and democracy (art. 2). It is specifically article 5 of the text which requires that measures be