On October 18, 2024, the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), a leading organization for lawyers across Africa with a vast network of members, officially endorsed the Institute for African Women in Law’s Gender Equality in Law Campaign (GELC) and Gender Equality in Law Model Policy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during their annual conference.
The public endorsement occurred during a panel discussion on Gender Equality in Law Across Africa, co-sponsored by Equality Now, represented by Ms. Judy Gitau, Regional Coordinator and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), represented by the Executive Director, Ms. Lensa Biyena. The endorsement was signed on behalf of PALU by three Executive Committee members: Ms. Joyce Oduah, Vice President (Western Africa), Mr. Donald Deya, the Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Koffi Sylvain Attoh-Mensah, Treasurer.
PALU’s endorsement is a significant milestone in the Gender Equality in Law Campaign (GELC) launched in Accra, Ghana on July 5, 2024, and in Addis Ababa in collaboration with the Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union on October 15, 2024. The endorsement impact is far-reaching, signaling to PALU’s over 1,200 individual members and 76 institutional members that attaining gender equality within the legal profession must be prioritized.
The campaign is premised on the triple-A—Awareness, Advocacy and Activation. The commitment by PALU as a campaign partner and member of the GELC Alliance provides a broader platform for advocacy. The endorsement of the Gender Equality in Law Model Policy will accelerate efforts to get law firms to adopt and activate the policy in their law firm practices.
Mr. Don Deya, the Chief Executive Officer of PALU and a longtime MALE Ally of the Institute for African Women in Law, emphasized the importance of this historic action by PALU,
“The governance organs of PALU, and I personally, have fully embraced our partnership with IAWL, as set out in our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and fully endorse the GELC and its products, which include the Model Policy. Our profession has been effective in protecting the rights of others while simultaneously violating rights internally. This Campaign and the Model Policy provide practical tools for achieving measurable change, country by country, region by region, and continentally. This is a challenge that the PALU Secretariat, which I lead, has accepted and will promote with all diligence.”
The President of PALU, Mr. Kari Abdoul Bagui emphasized the commitment by PALU to promote the adoption of the GELC by its members;
“The Council and Executive Committee, respectively, of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) take very seriously our partnership with the Institute for African Women in Law (IAWL). We wholeheartedly endorse the Gender Equality in Law Campaign (GELC), and we view it as a most useful platform for engaging our own lawyers associations (Bar Associations and Law Societies) at national and regional levels in Africa, working towards an Africa-wide reform of the legal profession.”
This endorsement by PALU marks a significant milestone in our partnership with PALU and our collective and shared interest in gender equality in law.
“To have a leading continental organization like PALU wholeheartedly endorse the GELC and the Gender Equality in Law Model Policy is a big win for women in law. Working with organizations such as PALU that have embraced gender sensitivity is crucial to the success of this campaign. We invite more law societies and bar associations to follow this great example.”
Bar associations, law societies, law firms and legal organizations can support the movement in three simple ways:
Join the GELC Alliance– law firms and legal organizations
Adopt the IAWL Gender Equality in Law Model Policy