Arusha, 1 August 2025: The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) celebrates the Pan-African Women’s Day (PAWD), which is observed annually across the African continent on 31 July.
This day is marked annually to celebrate African women and the unique role that they play in the society, and to pursue the quest for justice for women and continuously improve their status on the continent.
Notably, this day was established following a declaration for the African Women’s Day to be celebrated every year during the first Pan African Women’s Organisation (PAWO) conference held in July 1962 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
This day reminds all of us of our shared values as the African society, with women occupying the centre-stage as mothers, sisters, daughters, leaders and a strong support system.
The Court takes this occasion to recognise and appreciate the progressive efforts that the women on the continent have taken to ensure not only gender justice but also equality in other aspects of life, and in effect strengthen the very fabric of the African society’s ideals.
The PAWD theme for 2025, Advancing social and economic justice for African women reparations, closely aligns with the African Union’s theme for 2025, Advancing justice through reparations. The two themes not only demand justice for the African people and the people of African descent in general, but to seek justice for women and, at all times, confront all the vices that hinder the realisation of gender justice for African women, including the persistent colonial legacies.
This calls for among others for an urgent action to realise justice for African women through among others reparations for the historical gendered injustices that they have continued to endure. Such a call also closely aligns with the United Nations International Women’s Day 2025 theme, For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment calling for equality, empowerment and the realisation of rights for all women and girls.
The Court recalls that the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) in 2003 was one of the most progressive steps towards ensuring justice for African women, specifically those who have been victims of human rights violations.
The move not only guaranteed the protection of key human rights issues peculiar to women within the African region, but was also an affirmation of the African human rights system’s key role in the protection of women’s rights.
The Protocol uniquely features the rights of women within the continent, including health and reproductive rights, protection against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the right to a positive cultural context, the right to inheritance and freedom from harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM). While all the ideals of the Maputo Protocol have not been fully realised, tangible steps have been made to ensure gender justice both at the States’ levels and at a supranational level.
The Court, in recognising gender justice, has taken a firm position on gender equality, which is reflected in the composition of its leadership and staff members. Importantly, the Court in its jurisprudence has stood firm in ensuring the protection of women’s rights, including access to justice and discrimination against women and girls.
While steps have been taken to ensure gender justice, the Court notes with concern the continued existence of practices which violate the rights of women within the African member states. Such practices include domestic violence against women, FGM, early child marriages and femicide. These acts stand at odds with the African human rights framework and do not reflect the present regional and international position on gender justice.
The Court calls upon all the relevant stakeholders to take tangible and decisive actions to ensure that all acts that prejudice women and girls and violate their human rights are addressed.
This includes African Union member states, the pan-African movements, civil society organisations, community leaders, individual lawyers and human rights defenders, academia, the Courts and other justice systems.
Women’s voices ought to be amplified, and all hands brought on deck in our collective efforts towards realising a full-fledged gender justice. This will in effect ensure not only justice to the African women but also the entire society, given the enduring impact of gender equality.
