END OF YEAR MESSAGE 2025
Dear Colleagues and Friends, As we close our year’s work at DefendDefenders and AfricanDefenders, it is my traditional honor to invite you to join me as we reflect on our year’s work, as valued partners in a common pursuit to ensure a safer working environment for human rights defenders (HRDs) across Africa.
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Tanzania: the international community should act to prevent further violations
Following the Tanzanian authorities’ brutal response to widespread proÂtests that took place in the aftermath of the 29 October 2025 presidential and legislative elections, civil society urges the international community to take action to prevent further abuses. In a letter released today, 30 NGOs draw UN Human Rights Council Members’ and Observers’ attention to Tanzania’s […]
Championing Safe Digital Spaces: The Impact of Lisa Tenneh Diasay’s Work in Liberia
“Cyber security issues and incidents of digital hacking permeated the media world all around me, and I was genuinely concerned. To make matters worse, Women TV Liberia had run a story which ruffled a few feathers across the political field, resulting in our Facebook page and website being hacked. I even felt like I was being watched and followed. At one point, I went into hiding, fearing for my life.”
Updates from November 2025
Hello Friends, All eyes and ears were on Tanzania as we got into November, following the general elections and the troubling reports of post-election violence. What should have been a moment of democratic expression quickly descended into unrest, with clashes reported in several regions and allegations of excessive force by security agencies.
Human Rights Defender of the month: Hadiza Malumfashi
On the night of 14 April 2014, dozens of Boko Haram fighters stormed a girls’ school dormitory in Chibok, a small Christian enclave in northern Nigeria. 276 schoolgirls, most of them between the ages of 16 and 18, were forced at gunpoint into the forest after militants set the school ablaze. As the world woke up to the horror of the Chibok abductions,
Reflections on the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR85)
Our 14-member delegation’s engagement at the session and in the preceding NGO Forum under the African Union’s 2025 theme, “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations,” was guided by a commitment to amplify the voices of HRDs across Africa.
El Fasher atrocities under UN spotlight, but accountability gaps remain in Sudan
In light of the atrocities committed by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies in and around El Fasher, North Darfur, it was vital for the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special sesÂsion and empower the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for Sudan to conduct further inquiries and expose perpetrators. DefendÂDeÂfenÂders […]
Final Communiqué – DefendDefenders’ 20th anniversary celebrations
DefendDefenders’ 20th anniversary celebrations 4-5 November 2025
“They won’t silence the people”: The right to peaceful protest in Africa in 2025
Protesting is part and parcel of the human experience. Across the world, people protest against injustice, discrimination, and power abuse. They protest for justice, human rights, and accountability. Thinkers such as Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. stressed that everyone carries a moral duty to resist unjust systems and unfair laws. This remains true. In Africa, as elsewhere, people demonstrate to defend their rights and the rights of others, or to push for change. Since progress can only be achieved if ideas circulate freely, people should be able to express even controversial, non-conformist views. Those holding positions of power should not silence critical voices or prevent them from peacefully assembling and organising themselves. This is particularly important as historically marginalised groups, who have often been excluded from political decision, seek to express grievances and set issues on the political agenda by protesting.
Sudan: civil society calls for a UN Human Rights Council special session on El Fasher
In a letter released today, civil society calls on the UN Human Rights Council to convene a special session on Sudan to address the situation in and around El Fasher, North Darfur, and ensure urgent investigations. “In light of the situation in and around El Fasher, which after 18 months of siege fell to the […]
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