On Tuesday 13 October 2026, RFLD and Benin’s Institut National de la Femme (INF) held a joint side event at the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Dakar. The panel was titled “The Institut National de la Femme, a sentinel for the protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls in Benin”. It gave a national institution created five years ago a continental platform to explain how it works, what it has achieved and where it still meets resistance.
RFLD is proud to have created this space for the INF and to have facilitated it from the first planning meeting in Porto-Novo to the panel in Dakar. For a network that works with national institutions across the continent, bringing a State body to the African Commission to speak about its own practice is one of the most useful things it can do.
The panel was moderated by Dr Rokhaya Diakhaté, Director of the Family in Senegal. The podium brought together:
- Flore DJINOU, Executive Secretary of the Institut National de la Femme;
- Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, former Chairperson of the African Commission and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa;
- Professor Abdou-Bakari Imorou, President of the Commission Béninoise des Droits de l’Homme (CBDH);
- Bathor SECK, RFLD Country Director for Senegal;
- John GBENAGNON, RFLD Director of Strategy and Development.
The audience included members of RFLD’s delegation, women human rights defenders, civil society organisations accredited to the session and representatives of national institutions from several countries.
Five years of the Institut National de la Femme
The INF was created by Decree No. 2021-391 of 21 July 2021 and reports directly to the Presidency of the Republic of Benin. In 2026 it marks five years of existence. Over that period, the INF reports that its work has changed the lives of more than 118,000 women and girls, through listening, protection, referral, legal support and action before the courts.
That figure reflects a simple fact. Before 2021, a woman in Benin who suffered violence had to find her own way between the police, social services, health centres and the courts. Today a single public institution can receive her, guide her and, when needed, stand beside her in court.
Two core missions
The INF’s mandate rests on two main pillars, as set out on the institution’s website:
- Promoting women’s leadership. The INF works to increase the participation and empowerment of women and girls in every field: political, economic, social, legal and cultural.
- Fighting discrimination and violence. The INF combats all forms of violence against women and girls, whether physical, moral, domestic or gender-based, together with the discrimination they face, in both public and private life.
The two missions support each other. Violence keeps women out of public life, and the absence of women from decision-making makes violence easier to ignore. An institution that works on both at once can address causes as well as consequences.
The INF’s powers in practice
To carry out these missions, the INF holds several prerogatives:
- Assistance and listening. The INF receives, listens to, protects, refers and supports women who are victims of violence, with psychological and legal accompaniment. Women can reach it through the toll-free number 114 or on WhatsApp at +229 01 51 07 88 88.
- Legal action. The INF has the right to bring cases to court and to join proceedings as a civil party to defend women’s rights.
- Consultation. The INF runs a framework for cooperation with civil society, community leaders and traditional leaders.
The power to act in court is what sets the INF apart. It is the only institution in Benin specialised in gender-based violence that can join proceedings as a civil party alongside victims and survivors. Law No. 2021-11 of 20 December 2021 gave it that role, together with special provisions to punish offences committed on the basis of a person’s sex.
What the figures show
The INF presented the scale of the problem it was set up to address. According to the national data system on women, families and children (OFFE, SIDOFFE), Benin recorded 159,333 cases of gender-based violence of all kinds between 2019 and 2025, with psychological violence the most common form.
From its creation to July 2026, the INF registered 11,971 complaints. Of these, 5,155 cases were brought before the courts and 1,439 judicial decisions were obtained. These numbers describe a chain of action that runs from the first complaint to a ruling. They also show how much work remains between the moment a woman reports and the moment a court decides.
A legal framework that keeps moving
Benin’s framework has grown in layers. Law No. 2011-26 on the prevention and punishment of violence against women laid the foundation, with criminal, civil and social provisions. In December 2021, Parliament adopted three further texts on the same day: Law No. 2021-11 on special measures against offences committed on the basis of sex, Law No. 2021-13 amending the Code of Persons and the Family, and Law No. 2021-12 amending the law on sexual and reproductive health.
Other texts protect women and girls in specific settings. The Digital Code of 2018 covers online offences. The 2017 law on persons with disabilities and the 2015 Children’s Code reach groups that general laws often miss. The constitutional revision of December 2025 restated the equality of all citizens before the law without distinction of sex.
The panel returned several times to the same point. A strong legal framework is necessary, and it does not work by itself. Its value depends on the people and institutions who apply it, from the one-stop social protection offices at local level to the courts.
The speakers and what each brought
Dr Rokhaya Diakhaté, moderator
Dr Rokhaya Diakhaté, Director of the Family in Senegal, moderated the panel. Her ministry is engaged alongside RFLD in Senegal and works with the network’s Dakar office. Her role in the chair gave the discussion a comparative angle from the start. Senegal and Benin have organised their responses to violence against women in different ways, with different laws, ministries and referral paths, and each country can learn from the other.
Flore DJINOU, Executive Secretary of the INF
Flore DJINOU leads the INF and presented the institution’s mandate, its results and its priorities. She has led the partnership with RFLD on the INF side, including the preparatory meeting held at RFLD’s office in Porto-Novo in September and the mission of the INF delegation to Dakar.
Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu
Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, former Chairperson of the African Commission and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, brought the perspective of the Commission and of its mechanism on defenders. This matters for the INF’s work, because women who take up cases of violence, whether as lawyers, community workers or staff of a public institution, are themselves exposed to pressure and reprisals. A national institution that protects survivors also needs to protect those who accompany them.
His presence linked the side event to the panel he chaired the day before on the Commission’s main agenda, “Defending without being exposed”, on the protection of women human rights defenders. RFLD facilitated both conversations, and they speak to each other: protection systems for survivors and protection systems for defenders rely on the same institutions.
Professor Abdou-Bakari Imorou, President of the CBDH
Professor Abdou-Bakari Imorou spoke for Benin’s national human rights institution. National human rights institutions monitor how the State meets its obligations, receive complaints and report to regional and international bodies. The CBDH and the INF work on overlapping questions from different angles, and their cooperation matters for how Benin reports to the African Commission on the Maputo Protocol. His participation gave the discussion a second Beninese institutional voice and opened a conversation about coordination between bodies of the same State.
Bathor SECK, RFLD Country Director for Senegal
Bathor SECK leads RFLD’s office in Dakar, which hosted the INF delegation throughout its mission and organised its programme of meetings with Senegalese institutions. She spoke about RFLD’s work with institutions and civil society in Senegal and about the value of exchanges between national gender institutions in the region.
John GBENAGNON, RFLD Director of Strategy and Development
John GBENAGNON coordinates RFLD’s development at the global level. He leads the network’s strategy, resource mobilisation and partnerships with institutions, foundations and bilateral partners, and he coordinated the design of the partnership with the INF. He presented RFLD’s approach to working with national institutions and the data RFLD produces on the Maputo Protocol, including the Maputo Barometer.
Why this partnership matters to RFLD
RFLD’s approach rests on a simple idea. National institutions hold the legal powers and the official data. Feminist organisations hold the trust of communities and the knowledge of what happens before and after a complaint. When the two work together, survivors are more likely to reach a service and stay with the process until it ends.
The timing also mattered. The 89th Session coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the entry into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on 21 October 1986. Forty years on, the Commission’s work depends more than ever on what happens inside States. Most of the Maputo Protocol’s obligations are carried out by ministries, courts and specialised bodies such as the INF. When those bodies come to the Commission to explain their practice, Commissioners gain a clearer picture of what works, and other States gain models they can adapt.
For RFLD, a session like this one is part of a longer effort to bring francophone institutions and organisations into regional human rights processes. Their experience is often under-represented at the Commission, largely because of language and cost. Supporting the INF delegation, with interpretation and a full programme in Dakar, was a way to close part of that gap.
The partnership with the INF puts this idea into practice. One of its components, “INF at the international level”, supports the participation of INF delegations in regional and international meetings. Another provides for exchange and immersion programmes in RFLD’s offices abroad, with study visits to ministries in charge of social affairs. The Dakar mission combined both in a single trip.
What happens next
The partnership has set clear follow-up steps for this mission:
- a joint note of recommendations from the side event, to be produced by 31 October 2026;
- a comparative note on national gender institutions in Benin and Senegal, drawn from the immersion programme in Dakar, to be produced by 15 November 2026;
- a debrief in Cotonou within fifteen days of the delegation’s return, to share the results with national actors.
RFLD will also carry the lessons of the panel into its engagement with the Commission’s Special Rapporteurs and into its reporting on the Maputo Protocol.
RFLD thanks Flore DJINOU and the INF delegation, Dr Rokhaya Diakhaté, Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu and Professor Abdou-Bakari Imorou for their contributions, and every organisation that took part in the discussion.
Women and girls in Benin who face violence can contact the INF on the toll-free number 114 or on WhatsApp at +229 01 51 07 88 88.
About RFLD
The Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) is a pan-African feminist network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 countries. It holds Observer Status N°553 with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Media enquiries: communications.info@rflgd.org.
Read more: the panel on women human rights defenders and RFLD’s oral statement at the 89th Session.
