ACHPR85: ISHR calls attention to attacks against defenders in Africa

During the 85th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ISHR delivered a statement under the item activity report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa. 

The statement deplored the lack of progress in the adoption of new legislation on the recognition and protection of human rights defenders laws since the session of April, and the lack of implementation in countries that have adopted the such laws.

The statement further reported the repressions on defenders in the Sahel region – Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger -, as well as Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Among other cases, ISHR denounced the cases of Me Guy Hervé Kam, Me Doli Ini Benjamine Esther, Atiana Serge Oulon, and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé of Burkina Faso, Jedidia Mabela of the DRC, and Hugues Comlan Sosoukpe, a human rights defender exiled in Togo, arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and extradited to Benin. 

In view of these, ISHR recommended that the African Commission invite States parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to:

1. Repeal restrictive laws on civic space.
2. Align national laws with international standards for the protection of human rights and human rights defenders. 
3. Adopt and implement the law on the recognition and protection of defenders.
4. Open investigations into cases of enforced disappearances of defenders.
5. Respect and bring their practices into line with the provisions of the guidelines of the African Commission on the conditions of arrest, custody, and pre-trial detention in Africa.