THE ADDIS ABABA ROADMAP | Its impact on human rights defenders in the Sahel and Sahara

This research project could not have been possible without the efforts of staff at the Committee for Justice for the incredible time and skills invested in making this possible. We are particularly appreciative of our Executive Director – Ahmed Mefreh – for his visionary leadership in commissioning this project. We also commend the efforts of Gabriel Bangura – CFJ’s Human Rights Fellow – for coordinating and leading this research paper. He was assisted by two interns, Grace Mae Anderson and Andrea Orozco Ruiz – both from Indiana University, USA – whose meaningful contributions to chapters in this paper cannot go unnoticed. We further extend our sincere appreciation to Mia Garcia – from Indiana University, USA – for her dedicated efforts and valuable research and editorial contributions to the development and refinement of this paper.
From our team at CFJ, we appreciate the efforts of Usame Mehmetoglu for his tireless efforts in reviewing this paper. We also acknowledge Yasmin Salah for ensuring that the operational logistical arrangements needed to facilitate the research are available; and to Asma Fatma Moatemri for conducting and translating one of the interviews in Arabic.
We extend our special gratitude to Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Aua Baldé, member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; and Federica Donati, for generously contributing their time and expertise to reviewing this paper. Their valuable comments and observations helped strengthen its analysis. We are particularly grateful to Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, who also contributed to the research through an interview.
Special thanks are also extended to the human rights defenders who responded to our survey and to those who made time to be interviewed to contribute their knowledge and experiences to this paper. To, Esso-Dong D. A. Kongah, Rauf Mellal, Hannah Foster, and Lydia Winyi Kembabazi.