A law can change a woman’s life only if she knows it exists and if someone applies it. RFLD’s report Legislative Framework for Girls’ and Women’s Rights in West Africa set out to map those laws across fifteen countries. It covers gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, female genital mutilation, land rights, institutional mechanisms and women’s participation in decision-making, with laws updated to 2023.
The review remains a useful baseline. Some laws have changed since, and we invite readers to check the latest texts on our map of women’s rights laws in all 55 African Union member states.
Quotas that open the door
Several States have written women’s representation into law. In Mali, Law No. 2015-052 of 18 December 2015 requires that neither sex account for less than 30 per cent of appointments in public institutions. The share of women in parliament rose from 9 per cent in 2009 to nearly 27 per cent in 2016. In Côte d’Ivoire, Law No. 2019-870 of 14 October 2019 sets a minimum of 30 per cent women among candidates and gives extra public funding to parties whose lists reach 50 per cent. Benin‘s Electoral Code of 2019 reserves 24 of the 109 seats in the National Assembly for women.
In Niger, the quota for elected posts was raised from 10 to 15 per cent in 2014. The report found that the 25 per cent target for appointments was still not respected.
Protection from violence
Benin adopted Law No. 2011-26 on the prevention and repression of violence against women, and in December 2021 Law No. 2021-11 on sex-based offences, which covers harassment, rape, forced and early marriage and female genital mutilation. Côte d’Ivoire’s 2019 Penal Code reform punishes rape with 5 to 20 years’ imprisonment. It also abolished the medical certificate that rape survivors had to pay for, at 50,000 CFA francs, before a complaint could proceed. Removing that fee removed a barrier that kept many women out of court.
The review also recorded gaps. In Mali, a bill on gender-based violence was withdrawn under religious pressure. In Niger and Côte d’Ivoire, the texts reviewed did not criminalise rape within marriage.
Female genital mutilation
Côte d’Ivoire has prohibited the practice since Law No. 98-757 of 1998, and its 2016 Constitution names it among forbidden forms of degrading treatment. Penalties double when a health worker performs it. Benin and Niger also criminalise it. Mali, at the time of the review, had no specific law. Bills were drafted between 2002 and 2017 and none was adopted.
Land and the family
Benin’s Land and Domain Code of 2013 guarantees access to land without discrimination based on sex. Mali’s 2017 law on agricultural land and Côte d’Ivoire’s 1998 rural land law contain similar guarantees. In Mali, women make up 51.6 per cent of the rural population and 60 per cent of agricultural labour, which shows what is at stake when such laws are not applied.
Family law is where reform has moved slowest. In Niger, the report noted that no Family Code had been adopted and that civil law still set the marriage age for girls at 15.
Sexual and reproductive health
Benin’s Law No. 2021-12 of December 2021 widened access to safe abortion, including in cases of rape, incest and material or moral distress. Côte d’Ivoire ratified the Maputo Protocol by decree in 2011, which brings Article 14 on reproductive rights into its legal order. In Mali, the HIV law of 2006 requires written parental consent before a minor can be tested, a rule that keeps many adolescent girls away from services.
The common thread: application
Across the countries reviewed, the pattern is the same. Laws exist, but they are applied only in part, few cases reach the courts and customary or religious opposition slows new reforms. The Maputo Protocol remains the shared reference that allows women’s organisations to measure their governments against a common standard.
This is why RFLD trains members to use these texts in shadow reports to the African Commission, in meetings with parliamentarians and in legal aid. Our article on what the law says in Senegal follows the same approach.
Read the report
The full report (in French) gives the law numbers and articles country by country. More RFLD research is on our publications page. Corrections and updates are welcome at programs@rflgd.org.
