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By Shobha Shukla
The growing use of ‘family,’ ‘values,’ ‘culture,’ ‘religion,’ and ‘sovereignty’ narratives to dilute women’s and girls’ rights came under scrutiny at the 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 the 81st UN General Assembly, the SHE & Rights session was jointly hosted by the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), and the 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 the 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 the African Union. He therefore expressed doubt that it would be before the AU Assembly by February 2027.
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 recognize 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, the Maputo Protocol, the 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 organizations.
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 weaponizing religion, culture, and tradition to justify discrimination and avoid compliance with human rights commitments. She argued that religious language is frequently used to police 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 the African Union have signed the convention and two have not. 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, the Maputo Protocol, and the African Children’s Charter, and consultation with survivors, women’s rights organizations, 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 also 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 intersession 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 the drafting of a 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 marginalized 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 recognized, 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 aging and noted that older women require particular attention in addressing ageism, violence, and discrimination.
Hassine encouraged civil society organizations 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 the UN Inter-Governmental Working Group (IGWG) for the drafting of a 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.
