Mapping and Analysis of Family Language in African Union Agreed Language and Hum

Remote, South Africa

1. Background

Fòs Feminista . Fòs Feminista is an International Alliance of more than 200 partners across 40 countries working on the sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ) of women, girls, and gender-diverse people. In 2026, Fòs Feminista completed a three-decade mapping of how "family" has been used in United Nations agreed language — reviewing 1,441 excerpts across 180 UN documents from 1994 to 2025. That mapping found that a substantial, underused body of UN agreed language already centers individual rights, gender equality, and diverse family forms, offering feminist advocates a propositional foundation to build on rather than only a defensive posture against anti-rights mobilization around "family."

This mapping has not yet been extended to the regional level. The African Union (AU) has its own distinct body of human rights instruments, agreed language, and political dynamics relevant to family, gender equality, and SRHR — including the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), one of the most progressive regional instruments globally on women’s rights, alongside AU mechanisms...