Defending Human Rights Defenders

Defending Human Rights Defenders

Over the last decade, human rights violations in Africa, and indeed across the world have increased. Human rights defenders (HRDs) have risen against this situation of affairs by calling on States to be accountable on their obligation of promoting and protecting human rights.  Against this backdrop, States and its agencies have reviewed constitutions and other laws to curtail the work of HRDs leading to shrinking of civic space. HRDs, especially women have been harassed, beaten, arbitrarily arrested, tortured, incarcerated and even forcefully disappeared   in mysterious ways, which have been linked to State agencies.

It is on this premise that the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) convened the 13^th Triennial Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, in October 2018 under the theme:

“Expanding the civic space and promoting and protecting human rights defenders, with a specific focus on women: The role of national human rights institutions”

The Conference culminated in the adoption of the Marrakech Declaration.

To support the implementation of the declaration, NANHRI has conducted a study in nine countries in Africa to establish the extent to which HRDs are protected under the national legal frameworks. The countries in the study included Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Morocco, Liberia, Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. One of the most striking finding is that there is no legal framework dedicated to the protection of HRDs except in Cote d’Ivoire. the NHRIs and other actors work on protecting the NHRIs is based on the overall constitutional provisions regional and international frameworks such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The picture is the same in more than 90 per cent of countries in Africa, where no legal frameworks is dedicated to the protection of HRDs. in some cases, establishment of laws on HRDs have stalled or taken long to be enacted.

In addition to the study, NANHRI has developed various tools to guide the national and regional actors in protection of HRDs. The tools include:

• Model Law on the Recognition and Protection of the Rights of Human Rights Defenders in Africa
• Quick Reference Handbook for HRDs
• National Action Plan for Implementation of the Marrakech Declaration
• Regional Action Plan for Implementation of the Marrakech Declaration
• NHRIs Monitoring Implementation Framework on for Implementation of the Marrakech Declaration

Regional and national workshops and trainings on the use of the tools in the promotion, protection and advocacy for the rights of HRDs. One of the key outcomes of these initiatives is the development and adoption of multi-stakeholder national action plans towards full implementation of the Marrakech Declaration.