Human Rights Defender of the Month: Foni Joyce

Foni Joyce has engaged in humanitarian work since the age of 20, when she joined a refugee student organisation to amplify the voices of refugees. Originally from South Sudan, Foni grew up as a refugee in Nairobi, Kenya, but she makes it clear that ‘refugee’ is merely a legal definition: “I firstly define myself as a human being who has been uprooted.”

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Annual Report 2020

Throughout 2020, further shrinking of civic space was witnessed across the region, exacerbated
by the COVID-19 pandemic. Human rights defenders (HRDs) were disproportionately affected by
increased restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly, expression, and access to information.
While new regulations were enacted to curb the spread of the virus and misinformation, they were
also used to silence opposing voices and curtail protest movements, spurred on by increased
police violence during COVID-19 lockdowns in countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

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