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Equality Now

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    • Photo credit: Equality Now, Strategic Meeting of the Hurra Coalition Members, Istanbul 2025
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Hurra Coalition calls for reform of family law in the Middle East and North Africa

Hurra Coalition members highlighted child marriage as one of the most harmful manifestations of gender discrimination, depriving girls of education, safety, and dignity

Across the Middle East and North Africa, discriminatory family laws deny women and girls equal rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship. Members of the Hurra Coalition (http://Hurra-Coalition.net), comprising 13 feminist and human rights organisations from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), convened their annual meeting in Istanbul…

Equality Now
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New Research Reveals How Digital Platforms are Being Weaponised to Abuse and Exploit Women in Kenya

Social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok, dating sites, encrypted messaging services, and mobile money applications like M-Pesa are increasingly used to lure women and girls into harmful situations

Across Kenya, online sexual exploitation and abuse (OSEA) is escalating rapidly, with predators exploiting digital technologies to recruit, groom, abuse, and traumatise women and girls. Two new reports uncover how the digital realm is being weaponised to perpetrate harm online and offline through technology-facilitated sex trafficking, online sexual coercion and…

Equality Now
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Landmark ruling finally brings justice for survivors of wartime sexual violence in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Military trials were repeatedly delayed, court members failed to show up, and authorities refused to hold mobile hearings in the victims’ locality, effectively excluding them from the judicial process

Women’s rights advocates have welcomed a landmark decision by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights holding the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accountable for widespread sexual violence committed by its military forces. The ruling is in response to Communication 686/18 (http://apo-opa.co/46ULvoC), a case seeking justice following atrocities committed…

Equality Now

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    • Equality Now English Graphic - In Search of Justice Rape Laws in the League of Arab States
    • Equality Now French Graphic - In Search of Justice Rape Laws in the League of Arab States
    • New research reveals legal systems across Arab League countries are failing rape survivors (AR)
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New research reveals legal systems across Arab League countries are failing rape survivors

Equality Now’s examination of rape laws around the world has found that stigma and victim-blaming fuel silence and re-victimisation globally

New legal analysis by Equality Now (https://EqualityNow.org) reveals how Member States of the League of Arab States (LAS) are not adequately defining, prosecuting, and addressing rape, leaving women and girls without effective protection. Equality Now is calling for governments to conduct urgent and comprehensive law reform and invest in implementation…

Equality Now

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    • Central African Republic ratifies the Maputo Protocol, becoming the 46th African Union Member State to commit to advancing women’s rights (Photo Credit: WCIC)
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Central African Republic ratifies the Maputo Protocol, becoming the 46th African Union Member State to commit to advancing women’s rights

This milestone reflects a clear intent to enhance the country’s legal protections, enact and fully implement laws and policies to uphold human rights, and forge a future where women and girls can live safely

In a commendable move to advance gender equality, the Central African Republic (CAR) has officially ratified the Maputo Protocol (http://apo-opa.co/45AWRPn), becoming the 46th African Union Member State to join this groundbreaking African treaty to protect and promote the rights of women and girls. The Protocol to the African Charter on…

Equality Now

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    • Our Rights are Non-Negotiable: How Reservations to the Maputo Protocol are Holding Back Women's Rights in Africa (By Deborah Nyokabi and Gicuku Kiragu) (Photo credit: Equality Now)
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Our Rights are Non-Negotiable: How Reservations to the Maputo Protocol are Holding Back Women's Rights in Africa (By Deborah Nyokabi and Gicuku Kiragu)

As the Maputo Protocol marks its 22nd anniversary, we reflect on how state reservations have undermined the Protocol’s promise to protect and promote the rights of African women and girls; This comes at a time when backlash against gender equality is intensifying across the continent

By Deborah Nyokabi (http://apo-opa.co/3GFEO0H) and Gicuku Kiragu (http://apo-opa.co/4eJwzNC), Legal Equality Experts, Equality Now (www.EqualityNow.org). July 2025 marks 22 years since the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (http://apo-opa.co/4lsiHdm) - known as the Maputo Protocol - by…

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    • (Left to Right) Dr Sibanda, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development; and Isheanesu Chirisa, WLSA National Director, at the report launch in Harare, Zimbabwe, on May 27, 2025. Photo Credit: Dennis Chiroodza
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Women and Law in Southern Africa and Equality Now Call for Urgent Legal Reform to Support Child Marriage Survivors in Zimbabwe

Since the lapsing of the National Action Plan on Ending Child Marriage in 2021, a new national action plan has yet to be adopted, affecting the implementation of laws and policies on child marriage

A new study commissioned by Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) (https://WLSAZim.co.zw/), with support from Equality Now (https://apo-opa.co/4kxQG3t), has found that although Zimbabwe has introduced commendable legislative and policy measures to prevent child marriage, survivors still face significant challenges. WLSA and Equality Now (www.EqualityNow.org) are calling upon the Government…

Equality Now
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African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Must Push for Reforms to Protect Women and Girls, urges Equality Now

The NGO called on the Commission to implore governments to criminalise femicide - the most extreme and brutal manifestation of violence against women

Equality Now (www.EqualityNow.org) is urging the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to call upon African Union (AU) member states to urgently address rising sexual violence and exploitation of women and girls across the continent. In its statement to the 83rd Ordinary Session of the Commission this month, the…

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    • Photo credit: Tadwein for Gender Studies
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New Study Reveals Changing Attitudes to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Among Sudanese Communities in Egypt

FGM is internationally recognized as a serious human rights violation involving the partial or complete removal of, or injury to, external female genitalia for non-medical reasons

Since Sudan’s devastating war erupted in April 2023, over a million people have fled to neighbouring Egypt seeking refuge. Both countries have laws banning female genital mutilation (FGM), but despite this, Sudan and Egypt have some of the highest rates of FGM globally. A timely new study, Female Genital Mutilation…

Equality Now

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    • Photo credit: S.Mona Sinha, Equality Now, at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Photographer: Joel Sheakoski
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New report finds sexist laws persist worldwide

Over the last 30 years, more than 60 countries have liberalized their abortion laws

 A new global report analyzing sex discrimination in laws reveals that while some commendable gains have been achieved in strengthening legal protections for women and girls over the past five years, progress remains slow, uneven, and increasingly under threat from a growing backlash against women’s rights.   Research by Equality Now…