Declaration on the Promotion of the Role of Human Rights Defenders and their Protection in Africa

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, meeting at its XX Ordinary Session held from XX to XX in Banjul, the Gambia:

INSPIRED by the objectives and principles enshrined in the Constitutive Act of the African Union of 2000, particularly Articles 3 and 4, which emphasizes the significance of good governance, popular participation, the rule of law and human rights; 

REAFFIRMING the importance of the observance of the purposes and principles of the African  Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  as basic elements of international efforts to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the importance of other human rights instruments adopted within the African Union. 

RECALLING the Grand Bay Declaration and its Plan of action adopted by the OAU Ministerial Conference on the promotion and protection of Human Rights in Africa in 1999; the Kigali Declaration African adopted by the African Union (AU) Ministerial Conference on Human Rights in Africa meeting in 2003; the Cotonou Declaration on strengthening and expanding the protection of all Human Rights Defenders in Africa adopted in 2017; the Guidelines on Freedom of Association and Assembly in Africa adopted in 2017;