ISHR
On 30 October, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) concluded its 85th Ordinary Session, which saw the state periodic reviews of Egypt, Tunisia, and Botswana; presentation of the report of the fact-finding mission on Sudan; panels on the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, on the externalization of migration management, on the right to the environment.
The 85th Ordinary Session ran from 7 October to 30 October 2025. The Session was divided into an online private session from 7 October to 17 October and a public in-person session from 21 October to 30 October, held in Banjul (The Gambia). The public session was open to State representatives, African Union (AU) representatives, representatives of international organisations, representatives of national human rights institutions (NHRIs), and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In line with the 2025 AU theme of the year, this ordinary session’s theme was “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”.
Additionally, the public session of the ACHPR was also preceded by the NGO Forum and ISHR’s inaugural training program for African human rights defenders on the African human rights system.
On 21 October, the opening ceremony of the 85th ordinary session featured speeches from 12 keynote speakers, including, among others, Mrs. Hannah Foster, Executive Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, on behalf of the NGO Forum Steering Committee, and Commissioner Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, outgoing Chairperson of the ACHPR.
On the election of the new ACHPR Bureau, during the first day of the public session, Commissioner Idrissa Sow and Commissioner Hatem Essaiem were elected Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the ACHPR, respectively, by their peers.
On the situation of human rights in Africa, 60 NGOs made oral statements, including ISHR, whose statement called attention to the worsening human rights situation in the Sahel, Guinea, Madagascar, and Palestine, in particular the situation of human rights defenders. It further called for the ACHPR to give its full support to the legislative protection of human rights defenders at the domestic level in Africa and to urge States to impose sanctions on Israel for its genocide of the Palestinian people.
On intersession activities, all 11 Commissioners presented their intersessional activities reports, including Commissioner Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa, and Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa. This was an opportunity for ISHR to make a statement and support a joint statement with the Women Human Rights Defenders Network of Uganda, calling attention, respectively, to cases of acts of intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders in Africa and to the dire situation of women human rights defenders in Uganda in particular.
On thematic topics, the ACHPR convened 10 official panels, including on the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the externalisation of migration management, and the right to the environment, among others.
On resolutions, the ACHPR adopted the following country and thematic resolutions:
On the sidelines of the session, ISHR participated as a panellist and supported the participation of HRDs in activities, notably the following side event, which represented an opportunity to advocate for the protection of HRDs, notably the adoption and implementation of the law on the recognition and protection of HRDs:
Information on the next session of the African Commission will be communicated in due course.
In line with its mandate to advocate for the protection of human rights defenders before international and regional mechanisms, ISHR presented the situation of protection of HRDs on the continent.
While the actions of the decade are orientated on the reparation of African and African Descents, the African Commission held a panel to assess the implementation of the recommendations with a human-right based focus.
Since 15 April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in civil war. In view of the calls for a ceasefire that have gone unheeded and the alarming violations of rights, the African Commission conducted a virtual joint fact-finding mission on the human rights situation in Sudan to document and assess the situation.
