POST-PROTEST COMMUNIQUÉ

African Feminists Submit Memorandum to the Pan-African Parliament and Call for Review of AU-CEVAWG Before Further Ratification

For Immediate Release
20 August 2026

A month ago, on 25 July 2026, African feminists, women’s rights organisations, survivors, legal advocates, human rights defenders and civil society movements gathered outside the Pan-African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa, to demand meaningful scrutiny of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, known as AU-CEVAWG.

The protest took place alongside the Pan-African Parliament’s High-Level Dialogue on the ratification, domestication and implementation of the Convention. The protest provided a critical platform for African women’s rights movements to insist that continental laws affecting the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls must strengthen existing protections and not weaken them.

During the protest, the representative of the #PauseForPurpose Campaign handed a memorandum to Hon. Chitraduthsing Lukeeram, a Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights in the Pan-African Parliament.

The memorandum called on the Pan-African Parliament to ensure balanced parliamentary engagement, subject the Convention to rigorous legal scrutiny against existing standards and transmit civil society concerns to African Union Member States and relevant AU institutions.

The message was clear:

Pause. Listen. Review. Strengthen. Then Ratify.

The protest was not a rejection of the urgent need to end violence against women and girls. African feminist movements have fought for decades for stronger legal protections, effective institutions, justice for survivors and accountability for States and perpetrators.

Nor is the campaign opposed to the adoption of a continental instrument on violence against women and girls. The concern is whether the Convention, in its current form, is legally coherent, enforceable and capable of advancing the protections that African women have fought to secure.

Urgency cannot replace legal rigour, meaningful public participation and institutional accountability.

Concerns requiring urgent scrutiny

The memorandum submitted to the Pan-African Parliament identifies substantive, procedural, structural and operational concerns that must be addressed before Member States are encouraged to accept binding treaty obligations.

These include questions about whether the Convention:

• clearly establishes rights, State obligations and accountability standards;
• complements and reinforces the Maputo Protocol and other existing African and international human rights instruments;
• creates unnecessary duplication, fragmentation or legal uncertainty;
• adequately addresses the lived realities of African women and girls; and
• provides credible mechanisms for monitoring, enforcement and access to effective remedies.

Concerns have also been raised about the Convention’s failure to expressly or adequately address widespread forms of violence, including female genital mutilation, child marriage, domestic violence, rape, trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence.

A continental instrument must directly confront the violence experienced by African women and girls. Critical protections should not be left to uncertain future interpretation.

The “Pause for Purpose” campaign argues that Member States should not ratify a legally binding Convention before its legal, procedural and operational weaknesses are addressed. Interpretation, litigation or future amendments cannot reliably correct defective treaty provisions and would unfairly burden survivors and civil society.

The campaign calls on the Pan-African Parliament to pause recommendations for immediate ratification, formally engage feminist movements and survivors, support continent-wide consultations, commission an independent legal review, share the memorandum across African Union institutions and establish a transparent follow-up process.

The protest begins a sustained effort to secure a Convention that is legally sound, informed by African women’s lived experiences and capable of delivering justice. Pausing is presented not as abandoning or delaying the Convention, but as strengthening it before ratification:

Pause. Listen. Review. Strengthen. Then Ratify.
#PauseForPurpose

For further information, contact:
CEVAWG@the-isla.org
aucevawg.org