Communiqué: Reflections from the Webinar on the Proposed African Charter on Family, Values and Sovereignty, by the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) – 19 March 2026

The recent webinar convened by the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) under its Countering Anti-Rights Actors (CARA) thematic area marked an important moment for reflection on the proposed African Charter on Family, Values and Sovereignty. The discussion highlighted that the draft Charter is not merely a new legal instrument under consideration, but part of a broader effort that could reshape Africa’s human rights architecture while invoking the language of ‘African values’. The webinar underscored that this is not simply a technical debate about a draft treaty. At stake are deeper questions about who defines rights, how legal concepts are interpreted, and whose lives are governed in the name of culture, family, and sovereignty. The proposed Charter was examined within the context of growing anti-rights mobilisation globally and regionally, where law is increasingly used as a strategic tool to reinterpret and reshape existing rights frameworks.

Particular concern arises from the proposal to establish a new treaty-monitoring body tasked with promoting, monitoring, and interpreting the Charter. Structured in parallel to existing regional mechanisms, such a body could generate competing interpretive authority within the African human rights system, potentially shifting normative influence away from established institutions such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The continent already possesses a robust human rights framework built through decades of struggle and negotiation. Instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa reflect African political processes and jurisprudence that have progressively advanced protections for dignity, equality, and justice. In this context, a central question emerges: What normative gap does the proposed charter seek to fill, if not the reinterpretation or rollback of rights already secured within the African system?

The webinar highlighted the importance of coordinated and strategic engagement in response to these developments. Because the proposed Charter touches multiple areas, including health, education, food systems, governance, and democratic accountability, responses must move beyond issue-specific advocacy. Broad coalitions across feminist movements, children’s rights advocates, environmental and food justice movements, and pro-democracy actors will be essential. The reflections emerging from the discussion point to a clear conclusion: normative regression is rarely accidental, it is organised and strategic. Addressing it therefore requires equally coordinated legal, political, and narrative responses.

ISLA, through its CARA thematic area, will continue to contribute to this effort by producing legal analysis, supporting strategic litigation, and convening spaces that strengthen collective engagement. The message emerging from the webinar is clear: the proposed Charter must be carefully scrutinised, openly debated, and critically examined before it could ever be allowed to reshape the legal foundations of the African human rights system.

This communiqué was first published on the website of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA).

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