Equality Now submitted the following statements to the 68th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. The joint statement was made by Alliances for Africa, on behalf of Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), of which Equality Now is a member.
The submissions detail concerns about the rights of women and girls across Africa, including:
- Ensuring COVID-19 recovery plans take into account the gendered impact of the pandemic across Africa by urging the Commission to develop guidelines on human rights based and gender sensitive approaches to government led post COVID-19 recovery.
- Raising concerns about reports of sexual violence against women in parts of Ethiopia, particularly the conflict-hit Tigray region, and calling for an immediate inquiry in collaboration with relevant national, regional and global actors responsible for the promotion and protection of the rights of women to redress any violations of women’s rights in the Tigray region, including through prosecutions under international criminal law.
- Continuing to urge the remaining 13 AU member states – Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan – to urgently ratify the Maputo Protocol in order to ensure that the women and girls in these countries enjoy their rights as enshrined in the Protocol.