On Wednesday 14 October 2026, a delegation from the Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) and Benin’s Institut National de la Femme (INF) visited the headquarters of the Association des Juristes Sénégalaises (AJS) in Dakar. The delegation was received by Ms Aminata Fall Niang, President of the AJS, and members of her team. The visit was planned as a learning exchange between two institutions that work, in different ways, to bring justice closer to women.
The RFLD delegation was led by Mr John GBENAGNON, RFLD Regional Director of Strategy and Development and head of RFLD’s delegation to the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Ms Flore DJINOU, Executive Secretary of the INF, led the Beninese team. The visit is part of the INF’s mission programme in Dakar, which RFLD organised during the session.
Congratulations on a new observer status
The meeting opened with congratulations. Under the leadership of Ms Aminata Fall Niang, the AJS obtained observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in October 2026. The status allows the association to take part in the Commission’s public sessions and to raise issues affecting women and children in Senegal before a regional body.
RFLD, which has held Observer Status N°553 with the Commission for several years, welcomed the news. More Senegalese women’s organisations with observer status means more voices from the ground in Banjul and at each ordinary session. RFLD offered to share its experience of preparing statements and shadow reports, and to work with the AJS on joint contributions.
Learning from the boutiques de droit
The core of the exchange was the AJS model of boutiques de droit, or law shops. Founded in 1974, the AJS brings together women jurists, lawyers, magistrates and academics committed to the rights of women and children. Over the years it built a network of community legal clinics where women can walk in, explain their situation and receive free advice.
According to figures published in the Senegalese press in 2025, the network counts ten boutiques in seven regions, from the Médina and Pikine in Dakar to Ziguinchor, Kolda, Thiès, Kaolack, Sédhiou, Kébémer and Kédougou. Since they opened, the boutiques have handled close to 69,000 cases, 87 percent of them brought by women. The AJS also relies on a network of around 1,000 trained paralegals who carry information on rights into neighbourhoods and villages.
The AJS team explained what happens in a boutique de droit. Staff listen first. They then give legal guidance before any procedure starts, and they offer psychosocial support where needed. Many cases concern family law, such as divorce, child support, inheritance and civil status documents, alongside cases of violence. For many women, the boutique is the first place where someone explains their rights in their own language and without cost.
Sharing the Benin experience
The INF team then presented the Beninese model. The INF was created by Decree No. 2021-391 of 21 July 2021 and reports directly to the Presidency of the Republic of Benin. Five years on, the institution says its work has changed the lives of more than 118,000 women and girls.
What draws attention to the INF is its legal standing. It is the only institution in Benin specialised in gender-based violence that can bring cases to court and join proceedings as a civil party alongside victims and survivors. From its creation to July 2026, it registered 11,971 complaints, brought 5,155 cases before the courts and obtained 1,439 judicial decisions. Women can reach it through the toll-free number 114.
The two models speak to each other. The AJS boutiques are rooted in communities and run by civil society. The INF is a public institution with the power to act in court. Both start from the same finding: laws protecting women exist, but many women never reach a judge. Participants discussed how referral between community legal clinics and a body able to litigate could shorten that distance.
What RFLD takes from the visit
For RFLD, this visit adds a practical piece to the dialogue between Benin and Senegal that it has supported throughout the 89th Session. On the same day, Senegal’s Minister of Justice, Maître Moussa Sarr, received RFLD and the INF. On 13 October, RFLD and the INF held a side event on the INF model, moderated by Dr Rokhaya Diakhaté, Director of the Family in Senegal.
RFLD will include the lessons from the AJS in the note of recommendations it is preparing with the INF after the mission, and in the comparative note on national gender institutions in Benin and Senegal. RFLD also looks forward to working with the AJS at future sessions of the African Commission, now that both organisations hold observer status.
RFLD thanks Ms Aminata Fall Niang and the AJS team for their welcome and their openness, and Ms Flore DJINOU and the INF team for sharing the Benin experience.
Read more
- Senegal’s Minister of Justice receives RFLD and the INF
- The INF and RFLD side event at the 89th Session
- RFLD’s oral statement at the 89th Ordinary Session
About RFLD: the Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement is a pan-African feminist network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 countries, with Observer Status N°553 with the ACHPR. Media enquiries: communications.info@rflgd.org
