Bineta Diop received the African Women Impact Award 2026 on International Women’s Day, March 8th, in Lagos, Nigeria, recognizing three decades of work advocating for women’s rights and peacebuilding across the African continent.
The award, presented before an audience gathered by Arise News, acknowledges Diop’s pivotal role in establishing Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) in 1996, an organization dedicated to centering women in African peace and governance processes. FAS’s founding coincided with a period where women’s voices were largely absent from formal peace negotiations and policy-making, despite bearing the brunt of conflict’s consequences.
Diop’s work culminated in the adoption of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU-CEVAWG) in 2025, a landmark legal instrument addressing all forms of violence against women and girls, including those occurring in digital spaces and conflict zones. According to Diop, these legal frameworks are not merely symbolic, but “lifelines” resulting from years of listening, lobbying, and negotiation.
From 2014 to 2025, Diop served as the African Union Commission’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, a position that placed her at the forefront of addressing Africa’s most pressing peace challenges. She travelled extensively throughout the continent, including to Somalia during a period of significant instability, Sudan’s Darfur region, and the Great Lakes region, consistently emphasizing that “Women are not merely victims of conflict. They are architects of peace.”
Diop’s approach extended beyond high-level diplomacy. She actively engaged with grassroots organizations and communities affected by conflict, working with women rebuilding their lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. She also collaborated with institutions like the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for International Development to build capacity among emerging African leaders, both men and women, fostering a collaborative approach to peacebuilding.
Her advocacy also contributed to the implementation of the Maputo Protocol, a comprehensive framework for women’s rights guaranteeing equality, dignity, protection from violence, and reproductive health autonomy.
Accepting the award, Diop redirected the focus from her individual achievements to the collective efforts of African women. She specifically honored the peacebuilders mediating conflicts at the community level, the negotiators advocating for representation, mothers in displacement camps demonstrating resilience, and young girls aspiring to a more equitable future. “This award belongs to the women who fought for the Maputo Protocol to become reality,” she stated, “To the women who rebuilt communities after war. To the women who continue to demand justice, dignity, and representation.”
Alongside the award ceremony, Diop launched a new official website intended as a digital archive of the African women’s movement, documenting three decades of advocacy, diplomacy, and impact. The website aims to serve as a resource for policymakers, researchers, and future generations of leaders.
