How ‘Family Values’ Are Being Used To Attack Women’s Rights
Princess-Ekwi Ajide
As governments prepare for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, human rights advocates are warning that some of the most serious threats to women’s rights are no longer presented as outright opposition to equality, but are being wrapped in the language of family, culture, religion and national sovereignty.
With only 52 months remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, experts at a recent SHE & Rights session said decades of gains on gender equality, bodily autonomy and the right to health are increasingly under pressure.
The panellists warned that seemingly reassuring arguments about protecting the family can be used to justify discriminatory laws and practices, including restrictions on reproductive choices, unequal inheritance, child marriage, female genital mutilation and unequal rights within marriage.
Dr Robert Eno, Registrar of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, illustrated the problem with examples of laws that have existed or remain in force in some countries, including provisions requiring women seeking no-fault divorce to compensate their husbands and rules giving daughters smaller inheritance shares than sons.
The discussion also challenged the use of sovereignty as a shield against human rights accountability.
Dr Eno said tradition, culture and religion deserve protection, but should not be invoked to legitimise discrimination or diminish human dignity.
Fatou Bantou Salah of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa called for a “Pause for Purpose” around the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, advocating independent legal scrutiny, wider consultation and comparison with existing African human rights standards before further ratification.
Meanwhile, Samah Hadid of Musawah argued that human rights advocates must reclaim religious and cultural spaces from voices that use them to reinforce patriarchal control.
For Vimbai Kapurura of Girls Not Brides and Women Unlimited Eswatini, the real measure of progress is not simply the number of treaties adopted.
Still, whether girls remain in school, women can access healthcare without stigma, survivors can report abuse safely, and women enjoy equal property and inheritance rights.
The family should be a place where rights begin, while sovereignty should strengthen democratic self-determination, not provide cover for discrimination against women and girls, is the clear message ahead of the UN General Assembly.
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