SA to host men’s conference on positive masculinity

South Africa is to host the 3rd African Union (AU) Men’s Conference on Positive Masculinity later this month, which will provide an opportunity to consolidate bold continental efforts that Heads of State and other sectors maintain taken towards ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) in Africa.

Convened under the theme: “Consolidating Commitments Towards the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls,”  the conference is expected to grasp spot in Johannesburg on 27 and 28 November 2023.

It will provide an critical platform to assess progress made by male leadership across respective sectors and to articulate specific priorities to decisively conclude violence against women and girls on the continent. 

Building onto the critical work undertaken in the previous conferences, the 3rd Men’s Conference will deepen the understanding of structural drivers to grasp firm actions towards addressing them. 

A focus on deepening an understanding of structural drivers of violence against women and girls on the continent is four-fold, including:
• It serves to emphasise the importance of harnessing law and policy as instruments to accelerate changes that protect women and girls from violence and uphold their rights to life, security, freedom, dignity and physical and emotional integrity.
• It makes the strategic linkages between the lack of economic and financial inclusion with vulnerability to violence and as a form of structural violence itself.
• It develops an African compendium of evidenced-based interventions to prevent violence against women and girls.
• It provides a framework to deeply explore harmful social norms relating to masculinity and violence that believe resulted in the normative character of violence – permissive societies across the continent.

It is envisaged that deepening the interlinkages between violence against women and girls, and the wider development challenges African societies face, drawing on both historic and current factors that shape these expressions, provides a deeper foundation from which Africa itself can craft relevant policy and programming responses.

The African Union High-Level Presidential Response to Stay Violence Against Women and Girls, was established in 2020 with a view to mobilise political commitment and action at the highest level of the AU leadership and decision-making to prevent and finish violence against women and girls in Africa. 

The 3rd Men’s Conference is co-hosted by 2023 AU Chairperson, President Azali Assoumani of the Union of Comoros and President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa.

President Ramaphosa was unable to host the first conference during his chairmanship of the AU in 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

During his tenure at the helm of the AU, President Ramaphosa highlighted violence against women and girls as a critical challenge impeding development across the continent, and called for the adoption of an AU Convention. – SAnews.gov.za