STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
8 March 2026, Banjul, the Republic of The Gambia
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the ACHPR or the Commission) joins the global community on this International Women's Day 2026 to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to the theme: "Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.
This theme is not merely an aspiration—it is an urgent call to transform promises into protection, principles into practice, and laws into lived realities for every woman and girl across Africa. It echoes the solemn pledge of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Aspiration 6 envisions a continent where gender equality is fully achieved, where women and girls are empowered, and where their rights are protected through responsive legal frameworks and accessible justice systems. Yet, as we mark thirty-one years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the distance between commitment and implementation remains stark.
Africa has made undeniable progress. We have witnessed increased political representation, legal reforms raising the age of marriage, and the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) by forty-six of fifty-five Member States—a testament to the continent's embrace of transformative norms. The adoption of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women ( AUCEVAWG) also marks a decisive step toward realizing the promise of International Women’s Day—ensuring a continent free from violence where women and girls can live in dignity and equality.
The appointment and election of women to the highest offices of State most recently Namibia's first female Head of State, signals a shifting landscape.
However, progress is incomplete where justice remains inaccessible. For many women and girls across Africa, the pursuit of justice is met not with remedy, but with retaliation. They face prohibitive costs, gender bias, procedural barriers, and the misuse of legal systems to silence, punish, or exhaust them. This phenomenon—legal retaliation—strikes at the heart of the rule of law. It turns courts into sites of secondary victimisation and transforms human rights mechanisms into inaccessible monuments. It is this reality that compels the ACHPR's current and urgent endeavours.
In 2024, the ACHPR adopted Resolution ACHPR/Res.594 (LXXX) 2024, mandating the development of a Joint Analytical Study on the Challenges of Litigating Women's and Girls' Rights before African Union Human Rights Organs. This landmark Study is undertaken jointly by the ACHPR, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It provides the first comprehensive expert analysis of the legal, procedural, institutional, and socio-cultural barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing these three regional justice mechanisms. Despite Africa's strong normative framework—including the Maputo Protocol, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights—the use of regional mechanisms to litigate violations of women's and girls' rights remains disproportionately low. The Joint Study diagnoses why. It examines persistent gaps between treaty ratification and implementation, the low number of cases filed before our regional organs, weak enforcement of decisions, and the procedural complexities that exclude those without resources or legal literacy. Most critically, the Study proposes evidence-based recommendations to strengthen access, increase the number of cases filed, and improve the implementation of decisions. It is a roadmap from exclusion to engagement, from silence to remedy.
Today, the ACHPR uses the opportunity to announce that the draft Joint Study has been launched for public consultation (https://t.co/g0h1k3ZCU6I), and invites States, National Human Rights Institutions, civil society organisations, legal practitioners, academics, survivors, and all stakeholders to submit their inputs by 20 March 2026. Your expertise, your experiences, and your recommendations will refine this Study and strengthen its impact. This is not a closed process—it is a collective endeavour to build a justice system that truly serves all women and girls. The Joint Study is one pillar of the ACHPR's wider strategy to secure women's access to justice without fear.
We have developed Guidelines on Combating Sexual Violence and its Consequences in Africa, which include dedicated chapters on access to justice, remedies, and protection from reprisals. We have adopted landmark resolutions on the protection of women human rights defenders from unlawful prosecution and legal harassment, and on the right to a remedy and reparation for women and girls’ victims of sexual violence.
Despite persistent barriers to access to justice for women and girls, recent transformative jurisprudence reflects meaningful progress at both regional and national levels. At the regional level, the ACHPR’s decision in Communication 480/14 — Senate Masupha & Others v. Lesotho affirmed that excluding women from serving as traditional leaders with adjudicatory authority is discriminatory, underscoring that women’s equal participation in customary justice systems is essential to achieving genuine access to justice—at the heart of International Women’s Day. At the national level, Malawi’s transformative judgment in AC (a minor) v. The Attorney General reinforced girls’ sexual and reproductive rights, demonstrating how progressive jurisprudence can dismantle systemic barriers and advance substantive equality in line with the promise of International Women’s Day.
We continue to urge States to domesticate the Maputo Protocol in its entirety, to ratify the AUCEVAWG to accelerate its entry into force, to establish specialised courts and units to address gender-based violence, to provide free legal aid, and to ensure that women can seek justice without facing economic exclusion or intimidation.
We call upon States to align their national policies with Agenda 2063 and the Beijing Platform for Action, and to report fully on their implementation of Article 8 of the Maputo Protocol—the right of women to equal access to judicial protection and equal treatment before the law.
This International Women's Day, let us move beyond rhetoric. Let us act with the urgency that justice demands. Let us ensure that every woman and girl who seeks protection from our national courts and our regional bodies is met not with barriers but with redress. Rights without justice are hollow. Justice without action is performative. Action without accountability is insufficient. The tools are in our hands. Let us use them to build an Africa where no woman is punished for seeking justice, where no girl is turned away from a courtroom, and where the promise of equality is finally, fully, and fearlessly fulfilled. For ALL women and girls. For ALL of Africa!
Honourable Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie
Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa of the ACHPR
