In its bi-annual report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, DefendDefenders provides a six-month overview of events affecting the rights to freedom of association, expression, and peaceful assembly in the East and Horn of Africa sub-region, highlighting worsening, sustained and targeted attacks on human rights defenders, and civil society as a whole.

The full report was compiled with input from National Coalitions for Human Rights Defenders and local focal points in the East and Horn of Africa, and submitted on 1 November 2017 at the 61st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, the Gambia.