From Conviction
The draft African charter on family sovereignty and values is presented as cultural protection, but critics warn it functions as a coordinated anti rights legal instrument.
The charter could undermine existing African human rights frameworks and threaten protections relating to reproductive rights, gender identity and family diversity.
Civil society organisations and legal experts warn that urgent engagement is needed before the charter gains institutional traction within the African Union.
Right now, a document is circulating in African Union corridors. It is wrapped in the language of sovereignty, tradition and protection. It invokes Ubuntu and speaks of the African family with warmth and pride. Yet beneath this carefully chosen language lies one of the most dangerous anti-rights instruments aimed at the African continent.
The Draft African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values is not a love letter to Africa. It is a legal weapon. We need to talk about it with the urgency it demands.
Where did this come from
The Charter did not arise from a popular groundswell of African communities demanding protection. It was carefully incubated through a series of Inter-Parliamentary Conferences held in Entebbe, Uganda, from 2023 to 2025. Each conference built on the last, expanding both the agenda and the coalition behind it.
A subsequent meeting in Nairobi in May 2025 brought together parliamentary speakers from Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Morocco, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Eswatini, South Sudan and Gabon, alongside delegates from Hungary, the Netherlands and the United States. It featured sponsors and speakers such as Family Watch International, Alliance for Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, Family Policy Institute and the Christian Council International.
Within the Charter’s own text, the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a document championed by the first Trump administration to roll back sexual and reproductive health rights in international forums, is cited approvingly.
Sikhander Coopoo is a humxn rights defender based in the Eastern Cape. He is a Black, queer, Muslim intersectional feminist.
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