ACHPR57: Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Africa

This report was prepared with the assistance of reports and information received by the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (the secretariat of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network) from our members and partners from the sub-region to highlight some of the current human rights. The full report is available here: ACHPR 57th Session report

MORE NEWS:

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.

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, a ten-year-old Hadiza Malumfashi sat in front of the news, devastated and full of questions.

SHARE WITH FRIENDS: