African Values: Commission Defense Needed
- A recent pan-African conference on African family values ignited controversy due to its all-white initial speaker lineup and perceived anti-LGBTIQ+ agenda.
- Despite organizers adding African panelists after an initial backlash, women's groups and human rights organizations voiced outrage over the conference's content.
- The African Christian Professionals Forum, the event organizer, has ties to U.S.-based anti-rights groups.
A Pan-African conference on “African family values” has sparked major controversy, focusing on its anti-LGBTI stance and connections to international actors. This event highlights the complex debate surrounding the definition of primary_keyword ”African values” and the potential for secondary_keyword “outside influence.” Critics are concerned about the agenda being pushed and its impact on human rights.The conference, backed by organizations known for their conservative views, has drawn sharp reactions from women’s rights and human rights groups across Africa. Concerns mount over efforts to influence policies at regional and international levels. News Directory 3 has covered the issues surrounding the conference extensively. What steps will be taken to defend human rights? Discover what’s next in this evolving story.
African Values Conference Sparks Controversy Over Anti-LGBTI Agenda
Updated June 04,2025
A recent pan-African conference on African family values ignited controversy due to its all-white initial speaker lineup and perceived anti-LGBTIQ+ agenda. The event, promoted with a poster featuring speakers primarily from Europe and the U.S., drew criticism for allegedly being underwritten by Global North actors pushing a conservative agenda.
Despite organizers adding African panelists after an initial backlash, women’s groups and human rights organizations voiced outrage over the conference’s content. Organizations such as CitizenGo, Family Watch International, and the Christian Council International, known for advocating “traditional family values,” were among the event’s supporters and sponsors.
The African Christian Professionals Forum, the event organizer, has ties to U.S.-based anti-rights groups. The conference aimed to promote the sanctity of life, family values, religious freedoms, values-based education, and good governance. critics argue these aims align with those of U.S. anti-rights groups.
Civil society groups have warned of coordinated attacks against the African Union by such organizations. Concerns centre on the potential for these groups to influence policy at regional and international levels.
This conference comes at a time of increasing authoritarianism where opportunistic populists, seeking to score cheap political points, often tout the idea that LGBTI identities are “un-African” and against “African values”.
Khanyo farise, Amnesty International
The 2025 Convention on Eliminating Violence against Women and Girls is thought to be their next advocacy target. They will probably argue that this treaty promotes gender ideology a similar strategy adopted by anti-rights groups in Europe against the Istanbul Convention, which is also aimed at preventing and combatting violence against women.
The conference included attendees from Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya, reflecting concerns that U.S.groups have financed propaganda and shaped anti-LGBTI laws in Africa. The concept of “African values” gained prominence in 2018 when the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) revoked the observer status of the Coalition of African Lesbians.
In 2022, the ACHPR denied observer status to three human rights groups, citing LGBTI identities as contrary to African values. These decisions contrast with the ACHPR’s 2014 resolution affirming the protection of LGBTI rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In 2023, the African Commission considered a paper on African Values to guide African governments in their human rights legislation. The contents of this paper remain undisclosed.
What’s next
The ACHPR faces the challenge of defining “African values” in a way that reflects the diversity of African families and upholds the principle of non-discrimination. With anti-rights actors co-opting African values, there is greater urgency for the ACHPR to reclaim African values and redefine them in accordance with the African Charter. It should root its approach in both our pre-colonial histories and the present reality of millions of LGBTI Africans who are entitled to the same human rights as anyone else, no matter what opportunistic western anti-rights actors might say. African values must be used to advance inclusion, non-discrimination and equality, not exclusion and discrimination.