ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the regional and international treaties that protect African women’s sexual and reproductive rights as well as the factors that undermine these rights on the continent. It discusses the implications for women’s human rights and women’s empowerment. The chapter argues that technical and discrete interventions to promote women’s health, lower the transmission of Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus/AIDS, and reduce maternal mortality are unlikely to work if wider laws and policies continue to undermine women’s reproductive rights in Africa. It highlights how women’s and girls’ human rights on the African continent continue to be violated due to insufficient consideration attributed to the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls. The sexual and reproductive health of youth has been recognised as key to the development of nations – demographically, economically, socially, culturally, and politically. African women’s reproductive and sexual rights are being undermined by a range of issues.
