NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 1-African women’s rights advocates have warned that growing appeals to “family values”, culture, religion and national sovereignty are being used to undermine hard-won protections for women and girls, calling for stronger public engagement and accountability to prevent a rollback of gender-equality gains.

📻 Breaking It Down

The warning emerged ahead of the 81st United Nations General Assembly as rights experts and civil society groups examined growing anti-rights mobilisation and its potential impact on gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and human rights accountability.

The latest SHE & Rights session, jointly hosted by the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health, Gender and Development Justice (APCAT Media), placed particular focus on the use of family, cultural and religious narratives in political and legal debates.

Dr Robert Eno, Registrar of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, said there was currently no indication that a proposed African Charter on “family sovereignty and values” was scheduled for consideration by the African Union Assembly.

📌 What You Need to Know

Eno stressed that the draft charter was not proposed by the African Union and would have to pass through a lengthy institutional process before reaching the Assembly.

He also expressed doubt that the proposed instrument would reach the AU Assembly by February 2027.

But Eno cautioned against complacency, saying the concern went beyond the fate of a single proposed legal instrument.

He said the broader contest was about how societies define and understand family, culture, religion, equality and human dignity.

“Discriminatory laws continue to affect women and girls in different parts of the world,” he noted, citing unequal inheritance rights, restrictions on divorce and the failure in some jurisdictions to recognise marital rape.

Rehema Namukose, Senior Regional Programme Officer for sub-Saharan Africa at Musawah, said anti-rights actors were increasingly exploiting the language of family protection to stall reforms affecting women.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya