RFLD’s Women’s Rights Laws by Country now covers all 55 member states of the African Union. Every African Union member state now has a legal profile in the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center. This article explains what you will find when you open a profile and how you can use it in your work.
Why we built it
Women’s rights organisations across Africa spend hours looking for the same information before every shadow report or parliamentary brief. Which treaties has the State ratified? Which law covers domestic violence, and is marital rape a crime? What does the family code say about the age of marriage? The answers exist, yet they are scattered across official gazettes and international databases, often in different languages. The country profiles bring them together on one page per country, in plain English, with a link to the source for every entry.
What each country profile contains
Treaty commitments. Each profile shows the State’s status under 29 African Union treaties, as recorded in the official African Union status lists: the year of ratification, or a signature or absence of action where the State has not ratified. The Maputo Protocol, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Protocols on persons with disabilities and older persons all appear here. Each treaty row gives the date of the AU list it comes from, so you know how recent the information is. The profile also covers the main UN treaties, including CEDAW and its Optional Protocol.
The constitution. Each profile summarises the constitutional provisions on equality, non-discrimination and women’s participation, with a link to the text.
National laws on 23 topics. The same topics are tracked for every country, so you can move from one profile to another and compare like with like. They include gender-based and domestic violence, rape and sexual offences, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, child marriage, family and personal status, inheritance, land and property, sexual and reproductive health, girls’ education, political participation and quotas, labour and maternity protection, nationality, trafficking, access to justice, online violence and data protection, older women, women and girls with disabilities, and the laws that shape civic space for women human rights defenders. For each topic the profile names the law, its number and year where we have them, and what it provides.
Recent developments and sources. Each profile ends with recent reforms or pending bills and a full list of the sources used.
Comparing countries
The hub page lets you look across the continent at once. A comparison table sets the 55 countries side by side on the Maputo Protocol, the CEDAW Optional Protocol and the share of women in parliament. A second table shows African Union treaties at a glance. A coverage grid and map show, topic by topic, where RFLD has already documented a sourced national law and where research continues. Countries are grouped by region, so a network working in the Sahel or in Southern Africa can find its neighbours quickly.
How we verify
RFLD lists a law only when we have found it in an official text or a reliable public source, and each entry links to that source. Where a topic is still being checked against official texts, the profile says so by name. A topic marked as under verification does not mean the country has no law on it. Treaty data comes only from the African Union status lists, and we update a profile when a new list is published. The profiles are for information and advocacy, and they are not legal advice.
How to use the profiles
- Prepare shadow reports to the African Commission and to the CEDAW Committee with laws and treaty dates you can cite.
- Check which commitments a State has made before its periodic report is examined.
- Brief members of parliament and journalists on the gap between a ratification and a national law.
- Compare your country with its neighbours when you argue for a reform.
The profiles work well alongside the Maputo Barometer 2026, which scores 49 countries on how they implement the Maputo Protocol, and the Maputo Protocol Hub. Together they show what a State has promised and how far its laws and practice have followed.
Help us keep it accurate
Laws change, and our members often hear of a reform before it reaches any database. If you see a missing law or a new bill, send the reference or the text to programs@rflgd.org. Every correction we receive is checked before the profile is updated.
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