Request for balanced parliamentary engagement, rigorous scrutiny and transmission of civil society concerns on AU-CEVAWG

 

MEMORANDUM

Date: 25 July 2026

 

To: The President and Honourable Members of the Pan-African Parliament

19 Richards Dr, Gallagher Estate, Midrand, 1685

 

Subject: Request for balanced parliamentary engagement, rigorous scrutiny and transmission of civil society concerns on AU-CEVAWG

 

  • We, the Pause for Purpose campaign, reaffirm our collective commitment to ending all forms of violence against women and girls across Africa. We welcome the African Union’s decision to adopt a continental Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls. The objective is urgent and important; women and girls deserve stronger protection, states need stronger accountability, and survivors deserve justice.
  • This memorandum is not a call to reject the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU-CEVAWG). It is a call to ensure that the Convention is legally coherent, enforceable and capable of advancing the protections African women have fought to secure. Our position is constructive and clear: pause, listen, strengthen, then ratify.

The need to hear balanced voices

  • The Pan-African Parliament should not proceed on the assumption that there is a single civil society position or an uncontested case for immediate ratification. Across Africa, feminist movements, women’s rights organisations, survivors, lawyers, human rights defenders and other civil society actors are calling for a pause so that the instrument can be strengthened.
  • We respectfully state plainly; we need to be heard. A panel that speaks to Member States about ratification should present a fair balance of views, including the legal concerns of those who support the goal of the Convention but question whether its current text is fit for purpose. Meaningful participation requires more than attendance. It requires an equal opportunity to present evidence, respond to assertions and place concerns on the official parliamentary record.
  • The Pause for Purpose Campaign conducted a survey of 1,500 civil society organisations across Africa in which only 33 percent knew AU-CEVAWG was being drafted and 93 percent reported that they had not been consulted. These findings underscore why the current parliamentary process must widen, rather than narrow, the conversation.

Issues requiring careful parliamentary scrutiny

  • A treaty that will shape national law, policy, litigation, reporting and institutional mandates across the continent must be built through transparent and meaningful public participation. Women whose lives and rights will be affected – survivors, women human rights defenders, women in conflict settings and organisations providing frontline services – must have a genuine role in assessing and improving the text before states accept binding obligations.

Normative alignment and legal certainty

  • Any new Convention must complement and reinforce the Maputo Protocol, the African Charter, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, CEDAW and applicable international and regional frameworks. The provisions of the convention before us raise concerns about legal coherence, duplication, vague provisions and whether AU-CEVAWG consistently creates clear rights, state obligations and accountability standards. Member States should not be asked to ratify first and seek clarity later. The Parliament recently adopted a model law on gender equality, it is imperative that it also embarks on an inquiry as to whether the AU-CEVAWG is aligned with the standards that the parliament has set.

Coverage of lived realities

  • The Convention should expressly and adequately address the forms of violence that shape the lives of African women and girls. Concerns have been raised about the failure to name or sufficiently address female genital mutilation, child marriage, domestic violence, rape, trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence. A continental instrument should strengthen existing standards and respond directly to these realities, rather than leave critical protections to uncertain future interpretation.

Accountability, monitoring and implementation

  • Before recommending ratification, PAP and Member States should understand how the Convention will be monitored and enforced, what remedies will be available to rights-holders, and whether existing delays, confidentiality rules and transmission challenges in the African human rights system may limit access to justice. The Convention should not merely state objectives; it should establish clear, enforceable obligations and a credible accountability framework.

Why ‘fix it later’ is not enough

  • A treaty has a different legal status from general comments, guidelines, resolutions and other forms of soft law. Strategic litigation may clarify rights, but it is uncertain, slow and costly, and it should not place the burden of repairing defective treaty text on survivors and civil society. Likewise, amendment after entry into force under Article 18 would require sustained political will and state consensus, and could expose the instrument to further normative regression. Revision before ratification is the safer and more responsible course.

Requests to the Pan-African Parliament

  • In the spirit of constructive continental dialogue, we respectfully ask the Pan-African Parliament to take the following actions:
  • Hear the voices calling for a pause. Provide #PauseForPurpose representatives, African feminist movements, women’s rights organisations, survivors and independent legal experts an immediate formal follow-up engagement and to ensure balance in information presented to Member States. Do not frame immediate ratification as the only rights-affirming position. Place both the case for ratification and the evidence supporting pause, review and revision before parliamentarians and Member States.
  • Pause any recommendation for immediate ratification. Refrain from encouraging Member States to ratify AU-CEVAWG until the identified legal, procedural and operational concerns have received independent, transparent and public scrutiny and to support meaningful continent-wide consultation and call for an inclusive process involving feminist movements, women’s rights organisations, survivors’ groups, women human rights defenders, legal experts, national human rights institutions, parliamentarians, relevant ministries and civil society from all African subregions.
  • Adopt a resolution urging the African Union to convene an independent expert-led legal review. The review should assess the Convention provision by provision, identify which concerns can lawfully be addressed through interpretation and which require textual revision, and evaluate alignment with existing African and international human rights obligations, and support revision and strengthening before ratification.
  • Transmit this memorandum through the AU system. Formally send this memorandum to all AU Member States, the African Union Commission, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Office of the AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, and request that it be considered before any further ratification advocacy or decision.
  • Create a transparent follow-up process. Acknowledge receipt of the memorandum, confirm its transmission, place it on the official record, and communicate the steps PAP and the relevant AU institutions will take in response.

Minimum due diligence before  the Pan-African Parliament recommends the adoption of AUCEVAWG by member states

 

PAP should encourage Member States to seek clear, written answers to the following questions before accepting binding treaty obligations:

  • Known weaknesses: What substantive, procedural, structural and operational concerns have been identified, and what is the response to each?
  • Interpretation or revision: Which concerns can legally be addressed through interpretation, and which require changes to the treaty text?
  • Normative alignment: Does AU-CEVAWG strengthen, duplicate or weaken obligations under the Maputo Protocol and other applicable instruments?

        Integrated framework:  Does the AU CEVAWG operate within the integrated framework of binding human rights law?

         Systemic Coherence: Does the AU CEVAWG preserve or fragment the architecture of the rights framework?

  • Accountability: How will the Convention be monitored and enforced, and how will rights-holders obtain timely and effective remedies?
  • Risk of later correction: What evidence shows that comparable treaty weaknesses have been successfully cured after ratification, and what are the legal and political risks of relying on later amendment?

Conclusion

  • Ending violence against women and girls requires urgency, but urgency must not replace legal rigour, public participation or institutional accountability. Pausing is not abandoning the Convention, and it is not delaying justice. It is the responsible step required to ensure that Member States ratify an instrument capable of delivering justice.
  • The Pan-African Parliament now has an opportunity to demonstrate that African women’s voices matter in continental law-making. We ask Parliament to hear us, ensure balance, support review and revision, and carry this memorandum to the institutions and Member States whose decisions will shape the rights of generations to come.

African women are speaking. Parliament must listen.

Pause. Listen. Review. Strengthen. Then Ratify.

#PauseForPurpose

Submitted by

#PauseForPurpose Campaign and participating African feminist movements, women’s rights organisations, survivors, legal advocates, human rights defenders and civil society organisations.

Contact: Mai Aman | CEVAWG@the-isla.org | +27 (71) 387-7155 | https://aucevawg.org