African Governments Urged to Act as Women and Girls Face Persistent Human Rights Abuses

At the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), women’s rights organisation Equality Now delivered a strong warning that women and girls across Africa continue to face widespread human rights violations driven largely by state inaction.

Addressing the Commission, human rights lawyer Deborah Nyokabi urged African governments to urgently fulfil their legal obligations under key regional frameworks, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). She outlined persistent gaps between commitments on paper and realities on the ground, citing weak legal protections against sexual violence, limited access to justice and survivor support services, entrenched impunity for perpetrators, and ongoing failures to address sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Nyokabi also raised alarm over inadequate access to reproductive healthcare, describing it as a preventable crisis endangering the lives of millions of women, girls, and infants. Compounding these challenges, she noted the growing influence of anti-gender rights movements seeking to dismantle existing protections and stall progress.

Barriers to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence

Despite progressive laws in some countries and strong regional legal instruments, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence across Africa continue to encounter significant barriers to justice. Equality Now’s research shows that rape remains one of the continent’s most prevalent crimes, yet the majority of cases never reach court and even fewer result in convictions. Legal loopholes, weak enforcement, under-resourced justice systems, limited political will, and pervasive victim-blaming foster a climate of impunity that allows perpetrators to act without consequence.

Sexual violence in conflict settings

Sexual violence by state and non-state actors remains a grave concern, particularly in conflict contexts. Equality Now highlighted a case shared by Ugandan lawyer and activist Agather Atuhaire, who has spoken publicly about being raped and tortured while in Tanzanian state custody after her arrest en route to support an opposition political figure.

Sudan’s ongoing conflict offers another devastating example. International bodies have reported the use of rape as a weapon of war, alongside widespread, ethnically targeted sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), official data recorded more than 73,000 cases of sexual violence between January and July 2025 alone, marking a significant increase from previous periods. The true scale is believed to be far greater, as stigma, insecurity, and legal and logistical barriers prevent many survivors from reporting abuse.

In a landmark ruling in August 2025, the ACHPR held the DRC responsible for widespread sexual violence committed by military personnel in South Kivu in 2011. The Commission found that the state had violated multiple provisions of the African Charter and the Maputo Protocol, including the rights to life, dignity, health, and freedom from torture, and explicitly recognised the gendered nature of the crimes. Equality Now expressed concern over the DRC’s slow response to the ruling, calling for a public apology, comprehensive reparations, prosecution of perpetrators, and stronger oversight to ensure compliance within the stipulated timeframe.

Kenya took a notable step toward accountability in 2025 by compensating four survivors of conflict-related sexual violence from the 2007–2008 post-election unrest. While welcomed, Equality Now emphasised that the measure remains insufficient, as hundreds of other survivors continue to await justice and redress.

Sexual exploitation and human trafficking

Sexual exploitation and human trafficking remain widespread across the continent, driven by poverty, conflict, climate change, displacement, and cross-border criminal networks. Although legal frameworks exist, enforcement is inconsistent and often ineffective. Equality Now called for governments to move beyond commitments by strengthening and harmonising anti-trafficking laws, ensuring reparations for survivors, and investing in specialised justice mechanisms and survivor-centred services.

Rising anti-gender rights movements

Equality Now warned that the growing influence of anti-gender rights movements poses a serious threat to legal protections for women and girls and risks reversing decades of progress. These movements are increasingly supported by well-funded international networks that collaborate with local actors under the banner of defending “family values” and “religious freedom.”

At a regional gathering in Kenya in mid-2025, campaigners from Africa, the United States, and Europe advanced an agenda opposing reproductive healthcare, comprehensive sexuality education, and LGBTQ+ rights. One outcome of this convening was a draft “African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values,” developed without the participation of women’s rights organisations. The proposed charter promotes a narrow, rigid model of family and womanhood, disregards diverse family structures, and seeks to roll back essential legal protections, disproportionately harming women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people.

Equality Now stressed that such narratives ignore the lived realities of many women and girls, whose experiences of family life are often marked by discrimination, control, and violence.

Threats to efforts to end FGM

Anti-gender rights activism is also undermining efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM). In The Gambia, a constitutional challenge seeks to overturn the country’s ban on FGM by framing the practice as a protected cultural or religious right. This follows an unsuccessful attempt in 2024 to repeal anti-FGM legislation. Equality Now reaffirmed that no cultural or religious justification can excuse practices that violate the rights, health, and safety of women and girls.

Recent regional court rulings have reinforced this position, finding that the failure to criminalise FGM constitutes a human rights violation amounting to torture. Despite such judgments, the practice remains legal or inadequately addressed in several countries. Equality Now urged governments to fully enforce existing bans and urgently introduce comprehensive legislation where protections are absent.

Africa’s reproductive justice crisis

Africa continues to bear the heaviest global burden of maternal mortality, accounting for the majority of deaths worldwide—most of which are preventable. Child marriage, restrictive abortion laws, and criminalisation of reproductive healthcare services remain major contributing factors. In several countries, outdated or contradictory laws create uncertainty for healthcare providers and restrict access to life-saving services. Elsewhere, reservations to the Maputo Protocol and restrictive legal regimes continue to block access to essential reproductive healthcare.

Equality Now called on the ACHPR to intensify its advocacy for harmonising national laws with Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol, which guarantees women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health.

In closing, Nyokabi emphasised that legal equality is not optional. “It is the foundation of peace, development, and justice,” she said, urging ACHPR Member States to honour their binding commitments and take decisive action to protect the rights and dignity of women and girls across Africa.