This month, during the 83rd Ordinary Session of the Commission, international human rights organization Equality Now delivered a comprehensive and urgent appeal, calling on African Union (AU) member states to reform outdated and inadequate laws that continue to leave millions of women and girls vulnerable.
Their demands focus on five key areas: criminalising femicide, ending child marriage, securing reparations for survivors of sexual violence, protecting reproductive rights in conflict zones, and combating the surge of digital and cross-border sexual exploitation.
The call is backed by hard data. According to UNICEF, over 79 million women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa have been subjected to sexual violence as children, making it the most affected region globally. However, even in the face of such staggering numbers, Equality Now’s research reveals systemic barriers to justice. In their 2024 report ‘Barriers to Justice: Rape in Africa’, the organisation outlines widespread legal loopholes: laws that allow marital rape, courts that absolve rapists if they marry their victims, and judicial systems that assess guilt based on a survivor’s behavior rather than forensic evidence.
Speaking at the session, Deborah Nyokabi, a legal equality and gender policy expert at Equality Now, said, “These are not isolated acts. They are symptoms of deeply entrenched discrimination, institutional gaps, and a collective failure to protect women and girls.”
Equality Now is urging the Commission to compel states to implement the Niamey Guidelines, adopted by the Commission in 2017, which outline specific obligations for governments to combat sexual violence and offer reparations to survivors.
One of the most urgent legal gaps is the failure to criminalize femicide-the most extreme and brutal manifestation of violence against women. Despite growing public outcry, many African nations still do not legally recognize femicide as a distinct crime. In 2024, Kenya reported 170 cases of femicide, but no targeted law exists. A petition calling for legislative reform has garnered over 78,000 signatures, yet action remains stalled. In Cameroon, public anger erupted last month after a man convicted of killing his wife received a five-year suspended sentence and a $90 fine. Equality Now is urging African governments to leverage the momentum from the 2025 African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, which includes a formal definition of femicide, to strengthen legal frameworks and end the impunity that fuels gender-based murder.
The urgency extends to conflict-affected nations like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In Sudan, now in its third year of war, rape and sexual violence are being used as weapons by all sides. The destruction of healthcare infrastructure has left survivors without access to medical care or reproductive health services, resulting in a rise in maternal mortality, miscarriages, and unintended pregnancies. In both Sudan and the DRC, Equality Now is calling for sexual and reproductive health rights to be integrated into humanitarian responses and for Sudan to finally ratify the Maputo Protocol, the continent’s flagship framework for women’s rights.
Child marriage also remains a critical concern. Fourteen of the 20 countries with the highest prevalence rates of child marriage are in Africa. Girls married early are often forced out of school and exposed to severe health risks from early childbirth. Equality Now is calling on all AU member states to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 without exceptions and to implement national action plans aligned with 2017 recommendations from the African Commission and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The rising wave of digital violence is another frontier requiring immediate attention. With increased internet access across the continent, online abuse including the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, cyberstalking, and sexual harassment ,is becoming more prevalent. A recent UNODC report found that 42% of trafficked victims in sub-Saharan Africa were girls, many exploited through digital channels. Equality Now warns that without robust enforcement of digital safety laws and investments in technological protections, digital platforms will continue to be weaponized against women and girls, especially those in public life like politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders.
As the African Commission closes its 83rd session, Equality Now’s message to governments is both urgent and clear: protecting women and girls is not a choice, it is a legal and moral obligation. “Gender-based violence in Africa is a pandemic with legal, medical, and psychological dimensions,” said Nyokabi. “It demands a response grounded in data, backed by law, and powered by political will.”
