ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has called for concerted continental efforts to fully empower and recognize African women for the continent's development.
The chairperson of the 55-member continental organization made the call in a statement issued on Thursday to celebrate the Pan-African Women's Day, which is annually marked on July 31 to honor the unwavering spirit, resilience, and revolutionary contributions of African women in the ongoing struggle for liberation, justice, and self-determination.
Noting that African women "have always been architects of change, builders of nations, and champions of justice," the AUC chief said the AU's theme for 2025, "Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations," is in perfect alignment with this year's Pan-African Women's Day theme of "Advancing Social and Economic Justice for African Women through Reparations."
Youssouf said African women bore the triple burden of racial, economic, and gender oppression under the historical legacies of slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, as well as ongoing neocolonial exploitations.
The extraction of Africa's wealth, from human capital to natural resources, systematically undermined the social and economic structures that had previously provided African women with meaningful roles and protections. Such systematic exploitations excluded African women from educational opportunities, denied them property rights, and forced them into exploitative labor arrangements, according to the statement.
"Reparative justice for African women, therefore, requires more than acknowledgment of historical wrongs. Economic justice requires not just access to employment but transformation of labor markets and the restructuring of economic systems that continue to marginalize women," Youssouf said.
He further called on all concerned stakeholders to join hands in advancing reparative justice for African women, recognizing it as a strategic necessity for the realization of Africa's development agenda and the vision of an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful continent. ■