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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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.