Adjudicating African Women's Rights

A comprehensive text offering in-depth qualitative and quantitative insights into the women's rights landscape in Africa, shaped by ECOWAS Court decisions.

This book provides insights into the reasoning of the ECOWAS Court regarding women's rights and is valuable for academics and students interested in human and women's rights in Africa, women's and girls' rights activists, professionals and organisations, judges, and legal practitioners.The book provides valuable insights into the landscape of women's rights in West Africa through the transformative decisions made by the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS Court). Originally established to foster socio-economic integration, the ECOWAS Court has evolved into Africa's premier regional human rights court. With nearly 90% of its decisions addressing human rights issues, the ECOWAS Court now surpasses the African Commission – the continent's longest-standing human rights body – in the number of human rights cases it handles. It offers a compelling analysis of the ECOWAS Court's women's rights jurisprudence, an often-overlooked but essential aspect of the Court's human rights mandate. Grounded in the due diligence principle and the Maputo Protocol, the book sheds light on how adjudicating women's rights cases promotes the global gender equality agenda and challenges state actions that undermine human rights.