President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana’s Parliament will this year ratify the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AUCEVAWG), describing the move as a decisive step towards protecting the Ghanaian girl child and promoting equal opportunities for women and girls.

The AUCEVAWG, adopted in February 2025 at the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, is a comprehensive legal instrument aimed at preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls across the continent.

Speaking at a High-Level Breakfast Meeting on Financing and Reaffirming Africa's Gender Commitments, a side event at the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on Friday, February 13, 2026, President Mahama expressed concern over the slow pace of ratification by member states.

“In February 2025, this Assembly adopted the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, a historic step, and yet progress has been slow.

“Ghana has signed the Convention and we've initiated steps to ratify it. This session of our Parliament is going to ratify the Convention. I urge all member states to sign and ratify this Convention before the end of 2026,” he said.

The President stressed that African countries could not afford further delays, pointing to the profound economic and social costs of gender-based violence.

“Violence against women and girls is not only a moral outrage. It is an economic catastrophe costing Africa billions annually in health care, lost productivity, and justice expenditures, while devastating families and communities,” he said.

President Mahama, who doubles as the AU Champion on Gender and Development Issues, underscored that ratifying the convention would send a clear message that violence against women has no place in Ghanaian or African societies.

He noted that AU gender instruments were not merely symbolic frameworks but foundational pillars of the continent’s human rights and development architecture.

“Frameworks matter, but political will matters more,” he stated.

The President further called on the nine AU member states that have yet to ratify the Maputo Protocol, the African Union’s human rights instrument guaranteeing wide-ranging rights for women, to do so without delay. He observed that 46 member states have already adopted the protocol since its adoption in 2003.