The human rights organisation Equality Now studied family law and practices in 20 African countries and found progress in recent decades, but said inequalities persisted in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance and property laws.
The report pointed to issues with pluralistic legal systems, where statutory legislation sits alongside customary and religious laws and can make interpretation and application difficult.
The majority of countries have ratified two protocols that guarantee strong rights and protections for women, including the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo protocol) and the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
However, in some countries, as in other parts of the world, rape is not outlawed in marriage; in others, women are unable to petition for divorce and have no guarantee of inheriting property on the death of a partner. In nations including Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria, women receive less inheritance than men.
Those advocating for change say that family laws have not kept up with the social shifts of the times, including changes in family responsibilities and increased divorce rates.
There has been some success across the continent, including raising the legal age for marriage to 18, said the report. Countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Mozambique have banned child marriage. However, Cameroon, Senegal and Tanzania still allow it. Countries such as Nigeria outlawed child marriage in 2003, but the practice continues in the north of the country, where approximately 50% of girls are married before the age of 18.
Esther Waweru, report co-author and a senior legal adviser at Equality Now, said: “Culture and religion frequently act as major impediments in the struggle for family law equality, stalling reforms. Claw-back clauses water down the full impact of some progressive laws, and we are now witnessing backlash from anti-rights movements seeking to reverse hard-won gains made in ending harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.
“Stagnation is also a problem, with governments pledging to reform discriminatory laws but failing to take meaningful action. In some instances, progressive family codes have remained in limbo for decades, awaiting enactment.”