EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NETWORK

Kampala: EHAHRD-Net calls on African civil society to mobilise in solidarity with Sudanese HRDs and on African leaders to put pressure on their Sudanese Counterpart

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) in collaboration
with Amnesty International (AI) today held a press conference in Kampala in solidarity with human rights defenders in Sudan who are increasingly feeling the brunt of a government bent on silencing the voices of those seen as posing a threat to its authority and future.

The conference formed part of a larger set of events organised in several other key African
countries aimed at highlighting the strong sense of solidarity which many African human rights defenders feel towards their colleagues in Sudan that have come under increasing pressure in the last year and more specifically since the release of the arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against President Al-Bashir.

EHAHRDP also sought to use this opportunity to call on African leaders both at an individual level and through the African Union, to use their influence to put pressure on the Khartoum government to abide by its responsibility both to assist and protect the Sudanese population as whole and more specifically to protect the rights of Sudanese human rights defenders.

The event generated significant media attention and highlighted the increasing interest which national human rights organisations throughout the region, also in many instances facing an increasingly restrictive environment, have in enhancing collaboration and experience sharing in order to ensure that their rights as defenders are protected.

Please find below and attached EHAHRDP’s press statement which was presented by Mr Hassan Shire Sheikh, Executive Director of EHAHRDP.

For more information please contact Ms Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Officer at EHAHRDP: [email protected] or +256-775-141756