September 01, 2026
The growing use of ‘family’,
‘values’, ‘culture’, ‘religion’, and
‘sovereignty’ narratives to dilute women’s and
girls’ rights came under scrutiny at latest SHE &
Rights session on gender equality, health rights and human
rights accountability. Speakers warned that while Africa has
developed a strong regional human-rights architecture –
including the legally binding Maputo Protocol and the
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights,
implementation, accountability and community engagement
remain critical to preventing reversals of hard-won
gains.
Ahead of 81st UN General Assembly, SHE &
Rights session was jointly hosted by the Global Center for
Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS with
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).
Dr Robert
Eno, Registrar of the African Court on Human and Peoples’
Rights, African Union (AU), said in SHE &
Rights session that there is currently no indication that
the proposed regressive African Charter on “family
sovereignty and values” is scheduled for consideration by
the AU Assembly.
He emphasised that the draft charter
was not proposed by the African Union and
even if eventually submitted, it would have to pass through
a lengthy institutional process before reaching the Assembly
of African Union. He therefore expressed doubt that it would
be before the AU Assembly by February
2027.
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However, Dr Robert Eno cautioned against
complacency. He argued that the broader challenge
is not confined to one proposed legal instrument but
reflects a deeper struggle over how societies understand
family, culture, religion, equality and human dignity.
Discriminatory laws continue to affect women and girls in
different parts of the world—including unequal
inheritance, restrictions on divorce and the failure to
recognise marital rape. These discriminatory practices are
not hypothetical but remain part of the lived realities of
many women and girls.
Dr Eno called for a response
based not only on legal arguments but also on human stories,
dialogue and persuasion. Gender equality, he argued, should
be presented not as a threat to family, culture or religion,
but as something that can strengthen families, communities
and societies. He also warned that human-rights meetings
risk “preaching to the converted” if they do not reach
people who disagree with or fear the human-rights agenda.
Engagement needs to extend into homes, schools, places of
worship, traditional institutions, communities and social
media.
While acknowledging the reality of anti-rights
mobilisation, Dr. Eno remained optimistic about Africa’s
normative progress. He pointed to the African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights, Maputo Protocol, African
Children’s Charter, AU gender-parity commitments and
regional human-rights jurisprudence as important
foundations.
The next frontier is implementation and
accountability. Treaties and court judgments cannot improve
lives unless governments implement them. Civil society must
remain central to this process despite shrinking civic space
and resource constraints.
‘Family Values’ Being
Used to Stall Gender-Equality Reforms
Rehema
Namukose, Senior Regional Programme Officer for
sub-Saharan Africa at Musawah, outlined how anti-rights
actors misuse the role of the family to stall gender
equality. Legislation advancing women’s rights in
marriage, divorce, and custody is delayed while homophobic
or restrictive “family protection” bills gain traction,
often backed by external far-right funding. She cited
developments in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda as examples of
legislative and political efforts that can restrict bodily
autonomy and sexual and reproductive rights, while
family-law reforms concerning marriage, divorce, custody and
women’s equal rights face delays in several
countries.
The same framing justifies harmful
practices such as child marriage and female genital
mutilation, as well as women’s economic subordination
through unpaid care work and denial of equal property and
inheritance rights.
Within some Muslim family-law
systems, concepts such as ‘male guardianship’ and
‘male authority’ can be codified in ways that position
men as heads of households and condition women’s rights on
‘obedience’.
According to Namukose, the language
of ‘family values’, ‘cultural integrity’,
‘sovereignty’ and ‘national cohesion’ is
being used to preserve patriarchal power rather than protect
families.
Countering these trends requires
collaboration among legal networks, faith communities,
survivors, policymakers and civil-society
organisations.
Reclaiming Religion, Culture and
Tradition for Gender Justice
Samah
Hadid, Global Executive Director of Musawah, said
the anti-rights movement is becoming more coordinated,
better resourced and increasingly effective in weaponising
religion, culture and tradition to justify discrimination
and avoid compliance with human-rights commitments. She
argued that religious language is frequently used to police
the women and reinforce patriarchal control in both private
and public life.
Musawah, a Global South feminist
movement rooted in the Muslim legal tradition, counters this
by producing egalitarian Islamic arguments that support
women’s rights and by training activists, lawyers, and
judges to use them. The strategy is to challenge and reform
discrimination from within Muslim legal and religious
traditions, rather than cede religious ground to
conservative voices.
Hadid called for a broad alliance
of secular, religious, cultural, and human rights actors.
Family, religion, and tradition can and must be shown as
compatible with equality and justice for women and
girls.
Pause for Purpose: Review Before Ratifying AU
CEVAWG
Fatou Bantou Salah of the
Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) focused
on concerns with the African Union Convention on Eliminating
Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG), adopted in
February 2025. She noted that nine member states of African
Union have signed the convention and two – The Gambia and
Ghana – have ratified it. 15 ratifications are required for
its entry into force, leaving 13 additional ratifications
necessary.
Salah seizes this as an opportunity
for a thorough review before the treaty becomes
binding. Concerns raised by ISLA and other civil society
include limited civil-society consultation during drafting,
the absence of published preparatory materials, conceptual
and substantive gaps, and weaknesses around state
due-diligence obligations. She also pointed to the lack of
express references to issues including female genital
mutilation, child marriage and conflict-related sexual
violence.
ISLA’s “Pause for
Purpose” campaign is not calling for the
convention to be abandoned, but for the ratification process
to pause while its legal framework is examined. The
campaign calls for conducting an independent Article by
Article legal review, comparing its text with the African
Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Maputo Protocol and
African Children’s Charter, and consultation with
survivors, women’s rights organisations, lawyers, service
providers and affected communities.
Salah also
examined the proposed draft regressive African Charter on
family sovereignty and values, warning that its definitions
of family, family-impact assessments and emphasis on
sovereignty and cultural values could narrow existing rights
protections.
Her message is succinct: pause, listen,
review, strengthen, then ratify.
Evidence,
Accountability, and Community Partnership: Lessons from
Eswatini
Vimbai Kapurura, Executive
Director of Girls Not Brides and Founder Executive Director
of Women Unlimited Eswatini, highlighted progress as well as
persistent gaps in adolescent health and
education.
Eswatini’s adolescent birth rate has
fallen from 87 births per 1,000 girls aged 15–19 to 78,
while early childbearing before age 18 has declined from 17%
to 12% during 2022- 2025. Eswatini has expanded health
infrastructure and access to SRHR services, including
youth-focused approaches. But among sexually active
unmarried girls aged 15 – 19, modern contraceptive use is
only about 51 percent, and the unmet need for family
planning is 46 percent. So, the question is not simply
whether services exist, but can young girls – especially
those from rural and poor households- actually reach
them?
Kapurura emphasised that access to
health infrastructure does not automatically guarantee
quality, dignity and stigma-free care. She called
for greater attention to the factors surrounding adolescent
pregnancy—including access to information, poverty,
education, family circumstances and social
expectations—rather than placing responsibility solely on
girls.
“We also have to look at the family, the
school, and the community and the systems around her, and
ask whether they are creating opportunities or creating
barriers for her”, she said.
The wider health
picture shows that adolescent girls and young women remain
particularly vulnerable to HIV due to early sexual debut,
poverty, adolescent pregnancy and gender-based violence, as
well as intergenerational relationships.
Vimbai
Kapurura sees Eswatini’s forthcoming November 2026
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) as an opportunity to assess
not only policy commitments but whether change is reaching
rural girls, adolescents and underserved communities. She
urged governments, civil society and young people to work
together so that UPR recommendations can translate into
budgets, services and community-level
action.
Inclusive process for drafting of Legally
Binding Treaty on Human Rights of Older
Persons
Khalid Hassine, Secretary of the UN
Inter-Governmental Working Group (IGWG) on the Human Rights
of Older Persons, outlined the UN Human Rights
Council process to develop a legally binding international
instrument on the human rights of older persons.
He
emphasised that the Secretariat must remain neutral and
impartial while supporting a government-led negotiation
process but said civil society engagement during the
inter-session periods could be particularly consequential.
He highlighted written submissions, evidence, research,
litigation, treaty engagement and coalition-building as
important avenues for participation, noting that the July
session received more than 200 submissions from
stakeholders.
Shobha Shukla, is a person with
lived experience and Chairperson of Development
Justice for Older Persons (DJ4OP), who participated in
previous UN Inter-Governmental Working Group (IGWG) meetings
for drafting of legally binding treaty on human rights of
older persons.
“We, the older people, have to make
sure that the lived realities of old age are
adequately reflected in the proposed human rights
framework – especially women in all their diversities,
indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and other
marginalised communities. Ageism and gender
inequality must end with us,” said Shobha
Shukla.
“The rights of older people have been
neglected for long. At best they are treated as recipients
of charity, rather than as an asset to society. From my
lived experience, I would like to reaffirm that we, the
so-called elderly persons, are not asking for mercy. We are
asking for our long overdue rights. We need to be recognised
– not as burdens, but as rights holders and as vital
contributors to families, communities, economies and public
life,” said Shobha Shukla.
Khaled Hassine too
highlighted the gender dimension of ageing and
noted that older women require particular attention in
addressing ageism, violence and
discrimination.
Hassine encouraged civil society
organisations to engage directly with their governments and
national delegations because “shaping a national position
is often more impactful than making a formal
statement.”
The next meeting of UN
Inter-Governmental Working Group (IGWG) for drafting of
legally binding treaty on human rights of older persons is
scheduled for 26-30 October 2026; while the International
Day of Older Persons on 1 October provides another
opportunity to generate evidence and political momentum
around the treaty
process.
