By Sirrah Touray
Commissioner Janet Sallah-Njie, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, has called out persistent failures in protecting women’s sexual and reproductive health across Africa, warning that progressive laws mean little when women still face denial, discrimination, and death.
Speaking at a forum on sexual and reproductive health rights in East and West Africa, Sallah-Njie said the focus must shift from policy on paper to the lived realities of women navigating broken healthcare systems.
“This discussion matters because it centers on survivors and the barriers women face every day in accessing care,” she said.
She commended Equality Now, the SOAWR Coalition, and IPAS for convening the dialogue and creating space for survivors to speak.
Sallah-Njie said Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol remains Africa’s strongest legal guarantee on reproductive rights, explicitly covering access to family planning and abortion under specific circumstances.
“Article 14 is groundbreaking in its recognition of women’s reproductive rights,” she said. The African Commission has reinforced this through additional instruments and general comments requiring states to dismantle legal, institutional, and socio-cultural barriers.
Despite that framework, she said millions of women are still blocked from contraception, post-rape care, and safe abortion services.
“Too many women continue to die from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications,” Sallah-Njie said.
She accused some healthcare systems of perpetuating abuse instead of providing care, citing cases in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana where women face unlawful detention after childbirth, restrictive abortion laws, and a lack of information about their rights.
She pointed to recent reforms in Rwanda and Benin as proof that change is possible when governments act.
Sallah-Njie urged all African governments to align national laws with the Maputo Protocol and establish accountability mechanisms for violations within healthcare systems.
“Human rights standards have no meaning unless they change lives,” she said.
She called for the removal of stigma, criminalisation, provider refusal, and unaffordable costs, and demanded survivor-centered policies developed with direct input from those affected.
The forum heard testimonies from survivors of rape, denial of abortion services, discrimination, and barriers to both healthcare and justice.
