ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND The Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network (AfricanDefenders) is a network of five African sub-regional networks, dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) across the African continent. The Johannesburg + 10 All Africa HRDs Conference held in 2009 established AfricanDefenders with the...
25 July 2019 H. E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, We write to you in your capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the secretariat of the continental organisation responsible for driving the political agenda and development of the people of Africa. As Chairperson of the AU...
Tata Madiba! In your dream, you believed in human dignity, equality, justice, peace and fundamental freedoms: “for to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.’’ Tata Madiba! You inspire us. You empowered us and taught us...
Johannesburg and Kampala: 12 July 2019 The Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN) jointly with the Pan African Human Rights Defenders Network (AfricanDefenders) call on Malawi authorities to immediately release two detained human rights defenders (HRDs). Gift Trapence and McDonald Sembereka. Mr. Trapence is...
Highlights AfricanDefenders Convention (Johannesburg 20+) Twenty years after the All African Human Rights Defenders Conference held in Johannesburg in 1998, AfricanDefenders’ convention (Johannesburg+20) was held from 12 to 14 June in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The convention brought together human rights defenders (HRDs) from all the regions of...
As civil society organisations from across the region, we are concerned by the increased arrests of human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. In 2019 alone, numerous human rights defenders have been arrested, detained and charged with offences such as ‘subverting constitutional government’ and ‘participating in gathering with...
