Women’s groups flag anti-rights conferences

Women’s groups have raised the alarm about two impending African anti-rights conferences, featuring prominent US conservatives, that have previously been used to mobilise for anti-LGBTQ laws and restrictions on sexual and reproductive rights on the continent, according to Health Policy Watch. Similar ‘African family’ conferences have tried to ‘strip women of their basic human rights and dignity and reinforce the dominance of men within our society using ‘family values’ as a vehicle, notes Women’s ProBono Initiative (WPI), a Ugandan women’s rights group. The Entebbe Inter-Parliamentary Forum opened on Friday. Since its inception three years ago, it has served as a conservative organising and misinformation platform for ultra-conservative African Members of Parliament. Hosted by Uganda’s President and Parliament, the forum has mobilised for copycat anti-LGBTQ laws in Uganda and Ghana with prison terms for those who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual. Conservative Kenyan MPs are working on a similar law. Other concerning shared policies include the Kenyan Government’s ‘family protection policy’, adopted in 2023, which undermines no-fault divorce that has since been copied by Uganda, says WPI.

Then the Pan-African Conference on Family Values convenes in Nairobi, Kenya, begins today. Co-hosted by anti-vaxx Wahome Ngare’s conservative lobby group, the Kenyan Christians’ Professionals Forum, this is a much bigger gathering than Entebbe, aimed at ‘promoting and protecting the sanctity of life, family values and religious freedom’. Ironically, its keynote speakers are predominantly white conservative men from the US and Europe. One of the sponsors, Family Watch International, a homophobic, anti-choice, abstinence-only organisation, has worked with the Heritage Foundation, which authored Project 2025, a conservative blueprint, for the Trump administration, notes Health Policy Watch. ‘It is outrageous that these organisations have been given a platform, when they are part of an initiative that pushed for slashing aid that is harming Africa families, and undermining the health of children, women and men and vulnerable communities,' said Dr Haley McEwan, a research associate at the University of Witwatersrand’s Centre for Diversity Studies in South Africa. ‘This conference is part of decades-long activities of US Christian right organisations in the region. The fact that it features high-profile government speakers shows that they are gaining influence and power and this is even more concerning, particularly in light of the damaging funding cuts.’