The Committee for Justice (CFJ) and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) submitted a joint input to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in response to its call for comments on the Draft Declaration on the Promotion of the Role of Human and Peoples’ Rights Defenders and their Protection in Africa.
The joint submission welcomed the ACHPR’s initiative to develop an African Declaration dedicated to human rights defenders, stressing that such an instrument could constitute an important step toward strengthening regional protection against reprisals, criminalization, and other forms of interference with peaceful human rights work.
At the same time, CFJ and EFHR emphasized that the draft requires targeted revisions to ensure that it functions as a genuinely protective instrument. The two organizations warned that broad or ambiguous language, particularly references to public order, morality, national security, cultural authenticity, or broadly framed “African values,” may be misused in restrictive contexts to suppress civic space and delegitimize independent human rights work.
The submission recommended that the Declaration clearly define human and peoples’ rights defenders as individuals, groups, communities, associations, or entities who peacefully promote, protect, or seek the realization of human and peoples’ rights at the local, national, regional, and international levels. It also called for a clear distinction between independent defenders and State institutions, noting that States and public authorities are duty-bearers responsible for respecting, protecting, and facilitating human rights work.
CFJ and EFHR further urged the ACHPR to preserve and strengthen the draft’s positive guarantees, including protections related to civic space, digital rights, access to resources, access to information, cooperation with regional and international mechanisms, and protection from reprisals. The two organizations recommended that the Declaration expressly protect defenders from unlawful digital surveillance, hacking, smear campaigns, online threats, arbitrary travel bans, passport confiscation, asset freezes, administrative obstruction, and reprisals targeting family members, lawyers, journalists, witnesses, and others associated with defenders’ work.
The joint input also called for stronger protection for defenders operating from exile or across borders, including against transnational threats and retaliatory acts linked to their engagement with African and international human rights mechanisms.
Regarding the duties of defenders, CFJ and EFHR recommended narrowing the relevant provision to peaceful conduct, respect for the rights of others, accuracy, transparency, and accountability in the use of resources. The organizations warned that references to counter-terrorism, money laundering, illegal immigration, or national affairs could be misused to criminalize legitimate human rights work, particularly in contexts where security narratives are already used to target defenders and independent organizations.
The submission also recommended redrafting the limitations clause to ensure that any restriction on the rights of defenders is prescribed by clear and accessible law, pursues a legitimate aim recognized under the African Charter, is strictly necessary and proportionate, and does not impair the essence of the right. CFJ and EFHR stressed that peaceful human rights work must never be restricted merely because it is critical, politically sensitive, or linked to engagement with regional or international mechanisms.
Finally, the two organizations called for stronger implementation provisions, including national laws and protection mechanisms for defenders, public data on attacks and reprisals, accountability for violations, and a more operational role for the ACHPR Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa.
CFJ and EFHR reaffirmed their support for the adoption of an African Declaration on the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights defenders, while stressing that the final text must preserve its strongest guarantees, remove language that may enable restrictions or reprisals, and respond effectively to the lived realities of defenders across the continent.