© African Commission
Participants to the African Commission’s panel on its draft African Declaration on Human Rights Defenders highlighted the novelties of the Declaration and aspects the Declaration must consider to address such as emerging threats against defenders’ activities.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) held, on 24 May 2024, at its 79th Ordinary Session, a panel on its draft Declaration on the Promotion of the Role of Human Rights Defenders and their Protection in Africa. The panel aimed to provide another opportunity for key stakeholders – States, civil society organisations, and national human rights institutions- to give input to the ‘zero draft’. In January 2024, the African Commission published the draft and called on stakeholders to submit their contributions to improve the final text.
The process of developing the Declaration started in 2019. At its 65th Ordinary Session held in Banjul from 21 October to 10 November 2019, the African Commission decided to ‘draft’ this Declaration and entrusted the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa with this task.
The ultimate objective of this Regional Declaration is to appropriate at the continental level the Conventions and other standards and guidelines adopted at the global level, especially the 1998 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and to address the causes and aspects specific to the African context to find appropriate solutions to restore a civic space conducive to the promotion and effective protection of human rights. This is the same logic that our continent has followed in the context of international conventions on human rights, which have been duplicated or adapted to the realities of our continentProfessor Remy Lumbu Ngoy, Chairperson of the African Commission and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa.
Drawing on existing soft-law instruments of the African Commission, the African Union and the United Nations, among others, the draft Declaration caters for the specific needs of human rights defenders in Africa. Apart from its preamble, the Declaration is structured into eight provisions. They pertain to the definition of a human rights defender (Article 1), their rights (Articles 2 & 3), state obligations (Article 4), the responsibility to defend human rights and fundamental freedoms (Article 5), limitations, standards and mandates (Article 6), interpretation (Article 7) and reporting (Article 8). ‘The Declaration brings out the idea that defenders should be free from reprisals in their work. This issue was nowhere covered in the 1998 UN Declaration and is the sharp contribution of the draft Declaration, ’ said Paul Mulindwa, Advocacy and Campaigns Officer, Africa Lead at CIVICUS.
Panelists highlighted other novelties of the Declaration including the fact that it draws on the lived realities of defenders in Africa. ‘The Declaration seeks to address the African-specific context while adhering to principles of international law. We must not lose sight of the African context,’ noted Basharo Kayira, Deputy Representative of Malawi to the UN in Geneva. He also applauds Article 8 as it urges States to report on ways they implement the Declaration.
‘This obligation stems from similar reporting obligations under major African human rights treaties and cannot be seen as imposing an additional reporting burden on States,’ added Kayira.
Panelists suggested aspects that the African Commission should include or clarify in the draft Declaration to address emerging threats to the work of human rights defenders. These aspects include the need to adopt an intersectional perspective and address the plights of defenders in areas of vulnerability, such as women human rights defenders, defenders with disability, defenders working on the rights of sexual minorities, those fighting corruption, defending environmental and natural resources, climate change and justice and those demanding for corporate social accountability. The Declaration should also address human rights violations related to the use of the internet, artificial intelligence, digital technologies, cybersecurity, data protection and the protection against cyberbullying. It is relevant to emphasise the State’s obligations to provide an enabling environment for defenders and adopt national instruments that align with international standards.
I urge States to urgently adopt appropriate strategies and legal measures in line with the Declaration and in consultation with civil society organisations and human rights defenders to effectively protect and enable their works, to address the root cause and provide adequate remedies.Gina Romero, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.
Following the wave of inputs, the African Commission will produce another draft of the Declaration which will consider relevant contributions.
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In her latest report to the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association underscored the effects of a growing negative rhetoric directed at civil society and activists.
12 NGOs that closely follow and engage with the General Assembly Third Committee have published a joint statement on outcomes of this 79th session.
