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At the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, experts and officials warned that migration externalisation practices risk undermining fundamental rights and called for stronger oversight, transparency, and compliance with international law.
The NGO Forum, ahead of the 85th ACHPR’s session in Banjul, held several panel discussions on the AU 2025 theme 'Reparations: Justice for Africans and People of African Descent' with different focuses, including the regional and UN standards on reparations, economic justice, as well as discrimination in Africa based on work and descent.
Addressing a meeting convened by the UN Human Rights Council President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the UN funding crisis, ISHR Director Phil Lynch outlined a plan of action for States to save the UN human rights system and protect the communities it serves.
At the 11th Session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations, ISHR urged all States to include and protect language that explicitly safeguards human rights defenders, impacted communities and the environment.
From 15 to 22 October, 16 defenders from across Africa took part in ISHR's capacity-strengthening programme on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) for the body’s 85th session.
On 22 October 2025, the Women Human Rights Defenders Network of Uganda and ISHR delivered a joint oral statement during the 85th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
ISHR drew attention to the dire human rights situation in the Sahel, Guinea, Madagascar, and Palestine, in particular in relation to the situation of human rights defenders.
The African Union’s first dedicated legal instrument aimed at ending all forms of violence against women and girls was adopted in February 2025 and comes at a time of renewed urgency in the push to advance gender justice.
At a panel on the protection framework for human rights defenders, prominent figures from Senegalese civil society and Rémy Ngoy Lumbu of the, Special Rapporteur for the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights, discussed best practices, challenges and the need to strengthen safeguards for defenders.
Concerned about the increasing numbers of unresolved cases, the NGO Forum held ahead of the 85th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights looked at ways to address impunity for human rights violations in Africa.
Earlier this month, Belgium, on behalf of the BENELUX States, raised a number of cases of reprisals during an interactive dialogue at the Third Committee before the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris.
As part of the NGO Forum ahead of the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies convened a panel on the issue of 'AI and Human Rights in Africa: Navigating the Future of Governance and Development'.
