AUCEVAWG: A missed opportunity in the fight against violence towards women and girls in Africa
Posted: 22 September, 2025 Filed under: Lakshita Kanhiya | Tags: African Union (AU) Assembly, AUCEVAWG, combat violence, Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG), displaced women, ensuring gender-responsive budgeting, free from violence, harmful labour, human rights, older women, questionable consultations, religious fundamentalism, right of women and girls, sexual and gender minorities, shrinking civic space, state obligations, travaux préparatoires, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), vulnerable groups, women with disabilities 1 Comment
Author: Lakshita Kanhiya
Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA)
Introduction
In February 2025, the African Union (AU) Assembly adopted the Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG), a landmark instrument that seeks to strengthen the continent’s response to one of its most pervasive human rights challenges. The Convention affirms the right of women and girls to live free from violence (Article 2) and extends protection across both public and private spheres, including cyberspace and conflict settings (Article 3). It prescribes comprehensive state obligations from enacting laws to combat violence, ensuring gender-responsive budgeting, and establishing coordinated support services for survivors (Articles 4–5), to protecting particularly vulnerable groups such as displaced women, women with disabilities, and older women (Article 7). The text also contains progressive provisions on the world of work (Article 8), safeguards for girls against harmful labour (Article 9), preventive measures that outlaw customs or traditions invoked to justify violence (Article 10) and guarantees of access to justice and protection for human rights defenders (Articles 11–12).
Objection! The AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, and the Question of Participatory Legitimacy
Posted: 18 September, 2025 Filed under: Mariam Kamunyu | Tags: ACHPR, advocacy, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African feminists, Akina Mama wa Afrika, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, AUCEVAWG, civil society actors, ethical implications of exclusion, Fòs Feminista, feminist movements, gender-based violence, international law, legality, Participatory Legitimacy, power imbalances, ravaux préparatoires, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, women and girls in Africa 2 Comments
Author: Dr Mariam Kamunyu
British Academy International Fellow, School of Law and Politics , Cardiff University
In February 2025, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AUCEVAWG), hailed in some corners as a historic legal instrument addressing gender-based violence across the continent. And yet, for many African feminists, the moment was shocking and bittersweet. The adoption marked the culmination of a drafting process that, by most accounts, was characterised by exclusion and opacity, particularly of the very feminist movements whose decades of advocacy laid the groundwork for such a treaty. This article proffers that the lack of meaningful participation by a cross-section of civil society actors undermines the convention’s political and normative legitimacy, even if its legal validity remains intact.
AfricLaw 
Corporal punishment as a public health concern: Breaking the cycle of violence against children in Africa
Posted: 25 September, 2025 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Nqobani Nyathi | Tags: 1.2 billion children, Africa, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Children with disabilities, corporal punishment of children, dropout rates, General Comment 9, global public health concern, Guidelines on Ending Violence Against Children in Africa, no benefits, physical force, public health crisis, religion, religious traditions, tradition, violence, World Health Organisation (WHO) | Leave a commentDoctoral Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
On 20 August 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a report declaring corporal punishment of children a global public health concern. By definition, corporal punishment is any punishment where physical force is used with the intention of causing some degree of discomfort or pain, however light.
The statistics are staggering. An estimated 1.2 billion children around the world are subjected to corporal punishment at home every year. Children exposed to such violence are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and emotional instability. These effects often persist into adulthood, increasing the risk of alcohol and drug use, and violent behaviour. In schools, corporal punishment contributes to dropout rates and poor educational outcomes.
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