The African Commission must Confront the Widespread Closure of Civic Space Across Africa

CIVICUS statement at the 85^th  Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights    

Agenda Item 3  – Human rights situation in Africa (with a special focus on Rapidly Closing Civic Space and Systemic Violations of the Human Rights)

Delivered by Dr Paul Mulindwa, CIVICUS

Global civil society alliance CIVICUS welcomes this opportunity to address the African Commission. We acknowledge positive developments in 2025 that merit recognition, including ACHPR adopting a resolution on Developing General Comment on the Protection and Promotion of the Right to environment in Africa; Malawi’s Constitutional Court struck down Section 200 of the Penal Code, decriminalising defamation and strengthening freedom of expression; and AU operationalised the Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, a binding framework compelling member states to combat gender-based‑ violence.

However, CIVICUS and its allies also welcome this opportunity to address the African Commission on a matter of grave and urgent concern: the systematic and widespread closure of civic space across our continent, marked by egregious violations of the rights to freedom of assembly, expression, and association, as guaranteed by Articles 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Civicus and its member organisations appreciate the role of the Commission in championing human rights and fundamental freedoms in Africa. Despite the robust protections in the African Charter, our continent is witnessing an alarming trend where governments are increasingly employing legal and extra-legal tactics to silence dissent, criminalise civic actors and political opposition, and stifle the fundamental freedoms that are the bedrock of any democratic society.

The Commission's Resolution on the Need to Protect Civic Space remains acutely relevant. Yet since its adoption in 2021, the situation has deteriorated markedly in several key respects:

Legislative Weapons Against Civil Society: States continue to enact or enforce laws that provide governments with sweeping powers to deregister, ban, and seize the assets of civil society organisations, often under vague justifications such as acting in a "politically partisan manner" or posing security threats. For instance, REDHAC and other in Cameroon remain suspended.

Digital Repression: Governments are increasingly leveraging cybercrime legislation, social media regulations, and surveillance technologies to criminalise online speech and digital mobilisation, effectively transforming civic space from sites of resistance into zones of state control. Examples include Sierra Leone and Zambia. In May 2025, Tanzanian authorities implemented X (Twitter) account restrictions affecting numerous citizens. Between July and December 2024, the government disrupted telecommunications services and social media platforms ahead of and following contested elections.

Structural Impediments to Association: New and existing legislation continues to impose excessive requirements for civil society registration, including demanding prior government permission, imposing excessive founder requirements, and granting arbitrary authority to deny or revoke registration based on vague criteria.

Targeting of Human Rights Defenders: Journalists, activists, and human rights defenders face arrest, detention, torture allegations, and harassment for performing their essential work of monitoring government accountability and advocating for fundamental rights.

Civic freedoms are being attacked on a monumental scale. Climate and environmental justice activists, Indigenous rights defenders and democracy advocates are among those facing the most targeted repression.

Since August 2025, Togo has witnessed escalating human rights violations, including the arbitrary arrest and the detention of human rights activists, including, Grâce Koumayi Biyoki. In Tunisia, the government has exacerbated its repression of critical voices and accelerated its crackdown on civil society groups. In Kenya and Madagascar, peacefull protesters were met with violent and repressive responses from security officers. While in Cameroon, in advance of the October 2025 presidential election, Cameroon imposed growing restrictions on civic and democratic space, including the suspension and banning of civil society organisations and restrictions on media operations and civil society operation ad funding. While opposition supporters arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly were subsequently released, their arrest in the first place violated fundamental protections.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We respectfully urge the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to:

1. Strengthen Mechanisms: Urge States to fully cooperate with the Commission's Special Mechanisms, particularly the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa, by granting them unconditional country visit requests.
2. Review Legislation: Call upon all State Parties to immediately repeal or amend all laws that are inconsistent with their obligations under the African Charter, specifically those relating to cybercrime, anti-terrorism (including anti- NGO laws), and public order management.
3. Protect Civil Society: Issue a General Comment on Article 10 of the African Charter to provide clear and authoritative guidance to States on their positive obligations to protect and promote an enabling environment for civil society.
4. Promote Civic Space: Issue a resolution condemning the deteriorating civic space across Africa and calling on states to immediately end the harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention of journalists, civil society actors, and human rights defenders.
5. Release Detained Civic Actors: Urge immediate and unconditional release of all journalists, civil society actors, and human rights defenders detained for their legitimate work.

Honourable Commissioners, the people of Africa are not asking for special privileges, but for the rights that are their inherent and legal due. A vibrant civic space is not a threat to stability; it is its ultimate guarantor. We call on this Commission to act with the urgency this crisis demands.