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Despite Sierra Leone's acceptance of recommendations aiming to improve civil society’s space, cases of reprisals against human rights defenders are still reported.

ISHR is pleased to launch its latest research exploring the extent to which national human rights institutions could act as national protection mechanisms as part of the implementation of national human rights defender protection laws in selected West African countries.

The Human Rights Defenders Network of Sierra Leone and Amnesty International are campaigning for the adoption of a new law on the protection of human rights activists in Sierra Leone, with ISHR support.

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This year, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders calls on us to assess what has been done since then and to reflect on what can be done for the next 20 years in Africa.

20 years after the adoption of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders, where are we on the legal protection of defenders in West Africa? To assess the progress made but also the challenges that still remain in the region, ISHR in collaboration with the West African Human Rights Defenders Network (WAHRDN), the Ivorian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (CIDDH) and HRCnet, is organising a workshop with defenders coming from all around the region.

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In a statement delivered today before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission), ISHR commended progress made on legal protection and recognition of human rights defenders while expressing serious concerns on increasing violations in various countries.

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On the margins of the 60th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Commission), a panel including experts of the African Commission and human rights defenders raised awareness about the need to continue to provide greater protection of human rights defenders in Africa, given the significant regression of democracy on the continent.

Civil society, government representatives, parliamentarians and national human rights institutions from across Africa strategise to enhance legal protection of human rights defenders on the continent.

Human rights defenders play a key role in advancing the rule of law, yet they are often at risk because of their work. Sierra Leone has the potential to show international leadership by becoming the first anglophone country in West Africa to enact a specific human rights defender protection law, writes Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Her Excellency Catherine Campbell.

Members of the UN's top human rights body should support the positive contribution of civil society to the protection of human rights, and resist attempts to undermine a resolution intended to respond to the global crackdown on civil society, a group of more than 240 civil society groups said today.

The work of human rights defenders, political activists and journalists across many States in Africa is impeded through restrictive laws and frameworks which fail to adequately promote or protect the rights to freedom of expression or access to information, ISHR has told the African Commission.

(Geneva) – Sierra Leone should commence a consultative process for the development of a human rights defender protection law in line with its statement at the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015 said ISHR in a briefing paper published today. The Republic of Sierra Leone is scheduled to be reviewed at the 56th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights from 21 April - 7 May 2015.