ISHR
On 17 October 2025, ahead of the 85th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, civil society organisations expressed their concerns about the continual shrinking of civic space.
Since the last NGO forum of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African human rights defenders (HRDs) agreed that the threats to civic space were of increasing concern.
While confirming the persistence of restrictions on freedoms of expression, of association, and assembly, panelists noted that women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are experiencing these same threats in specific and particular ways due to their gender..
As WHRDs, Salome Nduta, Executive Director, Kenya WHRDs Hub revealed that WHRDs are doubly victims of restrictions on civic space: as citizens defending human rights on one side and as women human rights defenders on the other side. She confirmed that in different countries of the continent, WHRDs are also victims of arbitrary arrests, attacks, harassment, including in digital spaces.
Giving the examples of WHRDs working on specific rights, such as environmental rights and gender orientation, Brenda Kugonza, Executive Director of the WHRD Network Uganda, shared the experience of Ugandan WHRDs who also experience intimidation, public shame, and backlash during the legitimate execution of their work.
The panelists acknowledged that the severity of restrictions leads organisations such as CIVICUS to develop a tracker to assess the effectiveness of the civic space in African countries. Highlighting WHRDs’ specific vulnerabilities, Salome Nduta invited to the development of a women-oriented tracker to assess WHRDs’ access to civic space, supporting that:
Protecting women's rights is not charity, it is justice.Executive Director, Kenya WHRDs Hub
The UN General Assembly’s principal human rights committee—the Third Committee—has kicked off its deliberations. This year’s session will run for 7 weeks from 3 October to 21 November 2025. The Committee will be chaired by the Permanent Representative of Thailand. We present some key issues on the agenda below.
The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council will consider issues including acts of intimidation and reprisals for cooperation with the UN, systemic racism, environment and climate justice, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent. It will also present an opportunity to address grave human rights situations in States including Afghanistan, Burundi, China, Israel/oPt, Nicaragua, Russia, Sudan and Venezuela, and many others. Here's an overview of some of the key issues on the agenda.
During Egypt's UPR adoption at HRC59, Nora Noralla delivered a joint statement on behalf of ISHR, Cairo 52 and Middle East Democracy Center. Watch and read the full statement below.
