Twenty years ago, Africa’s women’s treaty set a path to equality. We must be ready for the next steps

The then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan (second from left), with other African heads of state at the African Union meeting in Maputo, July 2003. Photograph: Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

Signed 20 years ago, in the Mozambique city that bears its name, the Maputo protocol was a landmark treaty in the progress towards gender equality across Africa.

It promises equality and non-discrimination to women and girls in civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.