African Women’s Rights Charter Faces Challenge from Conservatives

26/06/2026
Kerry Cullinan

Human rights and legal experts have urged African governments not to buy into a draft charter being incubated by conservatives that will undermine the rights of women and girls.

Conflict, repressive laws and harmful cultural and religious practices conspire to undermine the health and safety of African women, girls and sexual minorities.

Now, one of the few continental treaties that protects women’s rights and promotes gender equality – known as the Maputo Protocol – is under threat from a conservative alliance with its roots in the Christian right-wing in the United States.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/african-womens-rights-charter-faces-challenge-from-conservatives/

A draft African charter on ‘family values’ is on the cards: why it’s flawed and dangerous

May 21, 2026
Catriona Macleod, Godfrey Kangaude, Nicola Jearey-Graham

A series of conferences held in Entebbe, Uganda, between 2023 and 2025 have resulted in a draft African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values. The meetings were organised by the Inter-parliamentary Network on African Sovereignty and Values, which organises continental conferences for African legislators and faith-based advocates. Supported by international conservative groups like Family Watch International and heavily promoted by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, the aim of the drafters of the charter is to convince African governments to sign on to it.

The draft charter is situated within the current global movement to the right, which prioritises nationalism, tougher immigration policies and an erosion of social values like gender equity. Framed as an effort to “protect” the family, it urges governments to adopt a series of regressive measures.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/a-draft-african-charter-on-family-values-is-on-the-cards-why-its-flawed-and-dangerous-282423

Kinshasa Project Trains Health Workers on Safe Abortion and Reproductive Health Care

May 11, 2026

A community-based organization, ACODEFEM (Community-based Action to Support Women’s Development), has launched a reproductive health initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo aimed at strengthening the capacity of pharmacists to provide support for medical abortion services. The project was implemented between April and June 2026 in selected communes of Kinshasa, including Matete, Masina, and Kimbanseke.

The initiative, supported by HESPERIAN Health Guides, focused on improving access to information on safe abortion practices and reducing the risks associated with unsafe abortions. It also aimed to raise awareness about the use of medical abortion medicines such as misoprostol and mifepristone, while promoting a rights-based approach to reproductive healthcare.

Continued: https://news.fundsforngos.org/2026/05/11/kinshasa-project-trains-health-workers-on-safe-abortion-and-reproductive-health-care/

11.05.2026

News

ACODEFEM

Community-based Action to Support Women’s Development

Hesperian Health Guides

Maputo Protocol

misoprostol and mifepristone

self-managed abortion

Africa

Democratic Republic of Congo

Kenya – The Frame That Kills: Post-Abortion Care, Colonial Penal Law, and the Right to Health

Health and Human Rights Journal –VIEWPOINT
6 May 2026
Jessica Oga, Moses Mulumba, Stuart Ssebibubbu, Fatina Mwebe, and Nimrod Muhumuza

On April 24, 2026, the Kenyan Court of Appeal at Malindi reinstated criminal proceedings against a 17-year-old girl who had received post-abortion care for an incomplete abortion and against the clinical officer who had treated her.[1] The judgment in Kenya Christian Professionals’ Forum v. PAK will be read as a setback for abortion rights in Kenya, and in that frame, it is a setback. But the frame is the problem.[2] PAK is not, on its facts, an abortion case. It is a post-abortion care case prosecuted under abortion statutes, and in this viewpoint, we argue that the court of appeal’s central failure was to allow the slippage between these two categories to govern the proceedings. Recognizing this slippage as the mechanism of harm reframes both the doctrinal failure and the violation of the right to health that the judgment entails.

Continued: https://www.hhrjournal.org/2026/05/06/the-frame-that-kills-post-abortion-care-colonial-penal-law-and-the-right-to-health/

Women unjustly arrested, incarcerated without legal representation over abortions in Senegal, documentary reveals

Abortion-related charges in the country accounted for 23% of women behind bars.

Ambali Abdulkabeer
March 24, 2026

A comprehensive documentary has revealed how several women in Senegal are being unjustly arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for engaging in abortions regardless of the circumstances.

The documentary, which was produced by Afya na Haki (Ahaki), an Uganda-based non-profit organisation focused on advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa, in partnership with the African Institute for Investigative Journalism and Litigating Reproductive Justice in Africa, probed into abortion-related prosecutions in the country, highlighting the broader realities confronting women under Senegalese restrictive abortion laws.

Continued: https://gazettengr.com/women-unjustly-arrested-incarcerated-without-legal-representation-over-abortions-in-senegal-documentary-reveals/

25.03.2026

Film, Art, Books

Abibatou Samb

African Institute for Investigative Journalism

Afya na Haki

Litigating Reproductive Justice in Africa

I want everyone to be free’: A midwife’s fight for women’s bodily autonomy in Chad

Martine Ngaina was arrested for helping a woman access contraception without a husband’s approval—and she kept fighting

March 17, 2026
Ipas

Martine Naigna has spent the last 15 years working as a midwife in Chad’s toughest humanitarian settings—alongside refugee and nomadic communities, including in remote desert areas—to help meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who are often the most marginalized and least served by the health system in times of crises.

Now a health systems advisor with Ipas in Chad, she has built her career in a landscape where abortion is legally restricted and where patriarchal norms and systemic barriers have historically cost women their lives. Her advocacy was born of a singular, mounting frustration: witnessing preventable and needless maternal and child deaths because women lacked the autonomy to make decisions about their own bodies.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/midwife-fight-bodily-autonomy-chad/

From Criminalization to Constitutional Clarity: A Defining Moment for Reproductive Rights in Africa

March 11, 2026

Across Africa, a series of transformative legal and policy wins signal a clear regional trajectory–the recognition of reproductive healthcare as a constitutional and human right, not a political or socioeconomic privilege.

From Rwanda to Zambia, Kenya to Malawi to Nigeria, courts and parliaments are reaffirming the message that women and girls must not be punished for exercising their reproductive rights, or denied the care they need.

But what makes these transformations different is not simply the number of legal wins–it is the clarity they provide. Across diverse legal systems and political contexts, the message is becoming harder to ignore: reproductive rights are enforceable rights grounded in constitutional guarantees, and inseparable from dignity, equality, and the right to health for all women and girls in Africa.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/a-defining-moment-for-reproductive-rights-in-africa/

Kenya – OPINION: Women’s month and the silent crisis of unsafe abortion

Many Kenyan women and girls are still negotiating their bodily autonomy in fear, confusion, and silence.

by KELVIN MOKAYA
6 March 2026

March invites us to celebrate women. It calls us to reflect on progress made, to name injustices that persist, and to recommit ourselves to a future anchored in dignity and equality. In Kenya, Women’s Month often comes with colorful events, inspiring hashtags, and powerful speeches about empowerment. Yet beneath the celebration lies a quieter, more uncomfortable truth. Many Kenyan women and girls are still negotiating their bodily autonomy in fear, confusion, and silence.

This month, as we mark International Women’s Day, we must confront a pressing thematic concern that sits at the heart of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Kenya: the growing confusion, stigma, and systemic barriers surrounding access to safe abortion, despite constitutional guarantees.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/2026-03-06-opinion-womens-month-and-the-silent-crisis-of-unsafe-abortion

06.03.2026

Opinion

International Women's Day

Kelvin Mokaya

Know Your Rights Own Your Choices

Maputo Protocol

maternal morbidity and mortality

safe abortion guidelines

sexual and reproductive health and rights

The Geneva Consensus, Maputo Protocol and Tanzania’s silent crisis

Anthony Tambwe
Feb 23, 2025

DAR ES SALAAM: IN October 2020, a coalition of countries led by the United States under President Donald Trump unveiled the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.

Though non-binding, the declaration sent a powerful political message…. ‘abortion should not be recognised as an international right and should not be promoted as a method of family planning’.

It reaffirmed national sovereignty over abortion laws and emphasised the inherent dignity of human life.

Continued: https://dailynews.co.tz/the-geneva-consensus-maputo-protocol-and-tanzanias-silent-crisis/

23.02.2026

Commentary

anti-choice hypocrisy

anti-choice misogyny

Dr Ahmed Makuwani

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Maputo Protocol

Mathew Mwaimu

Tanzania Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance

Africa region: Reservations to the Maputo Protocol undermine protection of women’s health and reproductive rights

10 Feb 2026

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has called for the withdrawal of reservations by Algeria, Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda to article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).

The call came in a submission to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on the 28th of January 2026 in response to the ACHPR call for inputs on a draft Advocacy Framework .

Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol, guarantees women’s right to health, including sexual and reproductive health, and obliges States to authorize medical abortion in limited circumstances.

Continued: https://www.icj.org/africa-region-reservations-to-the-maputo-protocol-undermine-protection-of-womens-health-and-reproductive-rights/

10.02.2026