Women and girls’ rights in Africa

An overview of women’s rights in the region

Across Africa, women and girls continue to face systemic gender discrimination, despite significant legal and policy advancements. Sexual violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, sexual exploitation, and economic disparities remain major concerns. 

The continent has one of the world’s most comprehensive and progressive women’s human rights instruments, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (‘the Maputo Protocol’), which was adopted by the African Union Heads of State and Government in Maputo, Mozambique on 11 July 2003. As of May 2025, 45 of the 55 AU member states have ratified the Protocol. 

While many African nations have ratified CEDAW, the Maputo Protocol, and other international treaties, implementation challenges persist due to weak law enforcement, sociocultural norms, climate change-related emergencies, and political instability.

Sexual violence and barriers to justice

Sexual violence, particularly rape, is one of the most widespread and under-prosecuted human rights violations in Africa. Our 2025 research across 47 countries shows that survivors face a patchwork of discriminatory laws and inadequate protections.

Key issues:

• Low reporting of cases of sexual and gender based violence, and limited access to justice and services for survivors
• Inadequate data and coordination among protection and criminal justice actors.
• Different jurisdictions have defined rape differently, many placing emphasis on force, morality, or even context. 
• Many jurisdictions have lenient penalties for rape. International standards require that punishment for rape should be effective, proportionate, dissuasive, and commensurate with the real gravity of the crime.
• The age of consent to sex in Africa oscillates from 11 to 18 years. In some countries, there is an age that is determined that a person can consent to sex, then additionally, an absolute minimum age where even a close-in-age range defense cannot apply.
• Investigations are hampered by evidentiary burdens and judicial bias.

Recommendations for governments:

• Strengthen prevention and response by entrenching  the Multi-Sectoral Approach.
• Enhance the capacity of protection and criminal justice actors through training, monitoring, oversight and accountability.
• Address the root causes, including gender stereotypes, biases, customary norms and practices that constitute, tolerate, justify, or promote sexual and gender-based violence.
• Enact consent-based rape laws.
• Criminalise marital rape and femicide.
• Remove discriminatory legal provisions that justify violence against women.
• Implement the Niamey Guidelines for sexual violence response.

> Learn more in our 2024 report, Barriers to Justice: Rape in Africa, Law, Practice, and Access to Justice

Child marriage: Legal loopholes and regional disparities

Despite obligations to end child marriage, under international and regional human rights law, legal inconsistencies persist at the national level. West and Central Africa are the regions with the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world, while progress to eliminate child marriage has been slow in many regions across the African continent. In Southern Africa, countries such as Mozambique and Madagascar have some of the highest rates of child brides, driven by poverty, conflict, and harmful norms.

Key regional issues:

• Many countries still allow marriage below 18 with parental or judicial consent, or allow for exceptions for religious or customary marriages.
• Informal unions often go unregulated, leaving girls without legal protection.
• Early marriage is linked to school dropout, early pregnancy, and gender-based violence.

Recommendations for governments across the region:

• Set the minimum age of marriage at 18 without any exceptions, and adopt comprehensive laws on child marriage that also address prevention and response measures.
• Implement regional human rights treaties such as the Maputo Protocol and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as sub-regional model laws like the SADC Model Law on Child Marriage.
• Address root causes of child marriage through multi-sectoral measures, including education, health access, and economic support.

Discriminatory family laws and legal pluralism

Family laws govern family structures and relationships and play a crucial role in shaping the lives of women and girls. In Africa’s diverse and dynamic context, family laws encompass a wide range of legal provisions, customs, and practices that govern matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, child custody, and property rights.

Key regional issues:

• Women face discriminatory laws and practices in matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody.
• Informal or customary marriages often deny women legal rights.
• Widows and divorcees may be forced to repay dowries or lose property.

Recommendations for governments across the region:

• Harmonise statutory, customary, and religious law, ensuring family codes align with regional and international standards to protect all women and girls.
• Reform laws to address exceptions to 18 as the minimum age of marriage and criminalise marital rape. 
• Recognise women’s equal rights in property, marriage, and divorce.

> Learn more in our 2024 report, Gender Inequality In Family Laws In Africa: An Overview Of Key Trends In Select Countries

FGM: A widespread, global and urgent challenge

FGM affects an estimated 230 million women and girls across the world and 144 million women and girls in Africa, with the highest prevalence in countries like Somalia (99.2%), Guinea (94.5%), Mali (88.6%), and Sudan (86.6%). Despite global commitments to end FGM through the ratification of international and regional instruments as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically SDG 5.3, progress is slow and uneven.

Key Issues:

• Medicalization of FGM is rising, particularly in Egypt, Kenya, and Sudan.
  
• FGM is often justified on cultural or religious grounds.
  
• Conflict and migration influence FGM dynamics, as seen among Sudanese refugees in Egypt.
  

Recommendations to governments :

• Prohibit all forms of FGM, including medicalised and cross-border practices.
  
• Fund grassroots movements and health-based interventions.
• Implement survivor-centred support services and monitor implementation through multisectoral approaches.

Sexual exploitation in Africa

Globally, 94% of trafficking victims for sexual exploitation are women and girls, with a significant number of cases reported in Eastern and Southern Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in five trafficking victims is exploited for sex. It takes various forms, including sex trafficking, transactional sex, online exploitation, and other coerced sexual acts for profit; mainly driven by gender inequality, poverty, conflict, and harmful social norms.

The rise of digital technologies has made it easier to exploit girls online. Yet, most African countries lack adequate regulation and response mechanisms. Prosecution and conviction rates remain alarmingly low, leaving survivors without justice.

Key issues

• Weak enforcement of anti-trafficking laws, with many cases not investigated or prosecuted.
• Cultural and economic pressures that normalize child marriage, transactional sex, and cross-border trafficking.
• Victim-blaming attitudes by police, courts, and communities deter survivors from reporting abuse.
• Limited shelters, psychosocial services, and legal aid for survivors of sexual exploitation.
• Legal gaps in addressing online sexual exploitation and regulating digital platforms.

Recommendations for Governments

• Strengthen national anti-trafficking laws to clearly criminalize all forms of sexual exploitation, including online abuse.
• Train police, prosecutors, and judges on survivor-centred approaches and non-discrimination in handling exploitation cases.
• Ensure access to comprehensive protection services, including shelter, medical care, counselling, and legal aid for survivors.
• Regulate digital platforms and improve cross-border collaboration to combat technology-facilitated trafficking.
• Invest in education, economic opportunities, and public awareness campaigns to reduce girls’ vulnerability to exploitation.
• Align national laws with international and regional human rights frameworks, including the Palermo Protocol and Maputo Protocol.

The Maputo Protocol

In 2003, African States adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), heralding a new era in the women’s rights movement in Africa.

• The Maputo Protocol builds on international human rights treaties and lays out progressive provisions designed to holistically address violence against women and girls, and beyond that, addresses the unique challenges faced by women and girls in Africa. 
• As of May 2025, 45 out of the 55 countries in Africa have ratified it, with 10 African countries yet to ratify it. 
• Despite the progressiveness of the Maputo Protocol, nine countries have entered reservations and declarations on various provisions of the Protocol, thus limiting its application.

Equality Now in Africa

Equality Now works with partners across Africa to hold governments accountable for protecting and promoting the legal rights of women and girls, address harmful practices like FGM and child marriage, address sexual violence and exploitation, and improve access to justice for survivors.   We are a co-founder and Secretariat of the SOAWR Coalition and the Africa Family Law Network. 

Founded in 2004, SOAWR is a Pan-African coalition of more than 70 organizations based in over 30 countries, and working across the continent to advocate for the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the Maputo Protocol, Africa’s most comprehensive legal instrument for women’s rights. Equality Now played a central role in establishing SOAWR and currently serves as its Secretariat. SOAWR’s mission is to hold African Union Member States accountable and enhance partnership to fulfil their obligations under the Maputo Protocol and encourage other stakeholders to actively apply the Protocol for the promotion and protection of the rights of women. SOAWR’s advocacy has directly contributed to over 45 African Union Member States ratifying the Protocol and continues to serve as a model for rights-based coalition work.