Your Excellencies, Commissioners, distinguished delegates,
We thank you for this opportunity to deliver comments on the Draft Declaration on the Promotion of the Role of Human and Peoples’ Rights Defender and their Protection in Africa on behalf of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network. We are an indigenous feminist and women’s rights network of over 250 grassroot women-led organizations working across Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. From this context, our membership and partners on the ground constitute an extensive collective of women human rights defenders (WHRDs), first responders and women at the front line of protracted crisis, conflict, instability and sexual violence, standing to advance gender justice and the overall rights of communities across Greater Horn of Africa (GHoA).
Currently, the situation of WHRDs in this region is dire. In Sudan, we note the continued arbitrary arrest and detention of WHRDs under vague morality, anti-terror and collaboration laws by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) across Wad Madani (Al Gezira), Khartoum, Gedaref, Port Sudan, Dilling, Kadugli and El Obeid among other locations, sentencing them to stoning and even to death. In Ethiopia, we note the increasingly frigid and censored civic space in which women rights activists and women-led organizations are compelled to operate under. In South Sudan, we note the first-hand reports from WHRDs who confirm encountering consistent intimidation and harassment by state security actors for peacefully demonstrating against the deterioration of security and women’s rights in the country. In Somalia, we note the increased arbitrary arrest of women activists such as Ms. Sadia Moalim Ali, a social activist and tuk tuk driver who was apprehended by state security actors for her peaceful civic engagement online and offline, held in custody since April 12, 2026.
From this lens and with respect to the Draft Declaration, we are firstly concerned at the broad definition of “defenders of human and peoples’ rights,” to include the police, military and intelligence authorities. With the context highlighted, this will give further ammunition to state actors who operate in bad faith and who crack-down on dissenting voices as in the GHoA region.
Further, the imposition of vague duties which call on human rights defenders to report on their activities ‘as necessary’, refrain from hindering the ‘proper conduct’ of national affairs and respect legislation linked to national security is a dangerous, double-edged sword which can be interpreted constrictively, particularly in highly insecure contexts, to create more barriers for WHRDs advancing their work.
Finally, in the current era of regression with respect to the gender movement, we caution the framing of the current Draft Declaration around ‘morality’, ‘African traditional values’ and ‘family’ – terminology which is being increasingly used to erode well-established women’s rights and protections, to the detriment of WHRDs and communities at large.
We therefore call for a pause in the adoption of this instrument to allow for more robust consultation with civil society organizations and HRDs as well as research to deepen it provisions, ensuring that it reflects the true realities of African HRDs on the ground.
Thank you.
