African 'family values' charter condemned by rights groups as regressive and dangerous
The draft African Charter on the Family, Sovereignty and Values moved a step forward this week at a conference in Ghana. The document claims that African values and culture are under attack from 'foreign ideologies' and urges states to withdraw from any agreements inconsistent with the charter's principles, including the 2003 Maputo Protocol. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The draft charter calls sexual and reproductive health and rights an existential threat to the African family and falsely claims that policies based on these rights promote abortion on demand. It also rejects comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), claiming it sexualises children; states that gender is only male or female; and proclaims that parental rights prevail over children's rights, including decisions about sexuality and discipline.
African lawyers, reproductive rights groups and LGBTQ+ activists have condemned the charter as regressive and dangerous. Kenyan lawyer and board member of the Queer African Network Gilbert Mitullah said: 'It is a licence to oppose, refuse or fail to implement existing obligations on sexual and reproductive health and LGBTQ rights, and to dismantle the Maputo Protocol from within.'
The charter was developed by a core group of African lawmakers led by Ugandan government ministers at the annual Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty. The 2026 conference was held for the first time in Ghana with representatives from 20 countries. The goal is to gather enough support to bring the charter to a vote at the African Union General Assembly in February next year.
Critics note that the charter's definition of the family, based solely on heterosexual marriage, ignores the vast diversity of families on the continent. The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) warns that prioritising the family over the individual 'risks legitimising the subordination of women, children and adolescents to collective family interests'. ISLA lawyer Lakshita Kanhia said: 'Women will no longer be safe; children will not be safe.'
The charter's terminology also reflects the strong influence of conservative Christian organisations from the US and Europe that oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Progressive policies are rejected as neocolonialism or cultural imperialism. Famia Nkansa, communications lead at Purposeful (Sierra Leone), said: 'Anti-rights activity on the continent is simply an extension of the same colonial tactics: Africa serves as a battlefield where the West wages its ideological and economic wars.'
According to Ipas, the annual conferences have been supported by Family Watch International (FWI), a Christian lobbying group from Arizona that opposes abortion. FWI co-founder Sharon Slater has repeatedly stated that the UN and Western donor countries are imposing a 'radical sexual rights agenda'. FWI said in a statement that it is not involved in or sponsoring the conference in Ghana.
The charter text cites the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an anti-abortion manifesto drafted by former Trump adviser Valerie Huber. Mitullah added: 'The charter is not a continental instrument that coincidentally shares vocabulary with Western anti-rights groups. It is a transplant.'
Source: The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jun/05/ghana-african-charter-family-values-gender-women-sex-lgbtq-reproductive-rights)