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May 25, 2016

Public Education Events on Women’s Rights Held to Mark International Women’s Day

On March 8, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) supported legal education and awareness raising activities throughout the Central African Republic (CAR) to commemorate International Women’s Day. The events focused on raising awareness about women’s rights under CAR law and the legal support services that ABA ROLI provides to communities in six locations nationwide.


To date ABA ROLI has held 400 community-based education and awareness sessions that have benefited close to 35,000 Central Africans.

Speaking at one of the events which took place in the capital Bangui, Hadja Saad, President of the Central African Muslim Women’s Association, praised ABA ROLI for its work in the country. She said, “On behalf of the Muslim community in CAR, I thank ABA ROLI for the excellent work that they are conducting in our communities.” ABA ROLI trains and supports networks of paralegals and six legal aid clinics throughout the country to provide legal and mediation services, mainly to women and girls. ABA ROLI’s paralegals educate local populations—targeting women, girls, and victims of sexual and gender-based violence—on their legal rights and connect them with pro-bono legal services as well as psychosocial workers as requested. Mrs. Saad said that the public education events ABA ROLI organizes help women to look beyond their role of “raising children and caring for our families” and at how “we could contribute to the development and peace of our country.” She added that with ABA ROLI’s trainings, “We have realized that we have a role in the reconstruction of our nation after decades of crises.”

The Bangui outreach event was held in a neighborhood that has been marginalized due to heightened security risks. In a country where violence has erupted along the fault lines of religious identity, ABA ROLI’s trainings bring together people of all religious identities. Saad said, “We will share [what we have learned] with our children, teaching them the virtues of peace and religious tolerance.”

To date ABA ROLI has held 400 community-based education and awareness sessions that have benefited close to 35,000 Central Africans.

To learn more about our work in the Central African Republic, contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at [email protected].