On 19 October 2023, in collaboration with KUTAKESA and African Defenders, ISHR held an event on the sidelines of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on restrictive laws affecting human rights defenders in Africa.
On 24 October, ISHR delivered a statement on the situation of human rights in Africa, drawing the attention of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘the African Commission’) to the concerning trend of adopting laws and policies that restrict the rights of defenders in Africa, especially in Angola and Zimbabwe, as well as the need to ensure that existing measures and mechanisms to protect defenders are effective.
The adoption of the draft law approving the status of Non-Governmental Organisation in Angola by the National Assembly considerably limits in its provisions the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms and shrinks civic and democratic space. We are calling the Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders to help address this situation.
On the last day of the NGO Forum, a panel was organised to officially launch the newly established Lusophone Platform for Human Rights in Africa.
At its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council considered Angola's report resulting from its last Universal Periodic Review, during which Angola received 272 recommendations and accepted 259 of them.
As part of the UPR process, a review of Angola human rights record is scheduled to take place on 7 November 2019. As a prelude, NGOS, State delegations and the NHRI gathered for the pre-session organized on 9 October. This pre-session offered civil society a platform to directly advocate to State delegations ahead of the UPR session and facilitated the possibility for diplomatic delegations to ascertain information on Angola’s human rights record.
ISHR has called on the Human Rights Council President to urge 55 States to respond to communications by UN experts regarding alleged human rights violations.
This morning the UN General Assembly will hold elections for 15 seats on the Human Rights Council for the term starting 1 January 2018. We urge States to act with integrity when placing their vote.
This week, in sister events in New York and Geneva, 15 candidate States presented their vision for Human Rights Council membership for the period 2018 – 2020. They also responded to questions on how they would realise their pledges and commitments.
ISHR Director Phil Lynch explores the role, responsibility and interest of business when it comes to supporting human rights defenders and protecting civil society space.
