Abidjan, 19 July 2024: IHRDA is organizing a capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for a project on combatting sexual and gender-based violence and other violations of women and girls’ rights and strengthening access to justice for women and girls in Francophone West Africa, focusing on Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire.
As part of the project launched in January 2023, Pools of women’s rights defenders were formed to monitor, document and report violations of women’s rights, as well as provide pro bono legal assistance to victims of violations. This capitalisation workshop will enable participants to take stock of the implementation of the project, assess its achievements, challenges, and define best practices for the sustainability of these Pools and their activities.
The workshop will culminate in the launch of a Study on strategic litigation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) 20 years after its adoption. The study assesses the use of the Maputo Protocol to advance, promote and protect women’s rights in Francophone West Africa through strategic litigation.
The workshop and related activities are funded by Foundation for a Just Society, as part of a project to strengthen access to justice for women/girls in Francophone West Africa. It is the second phase of an initiative which ran from January 2020 to June 2022, involving Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal.
