For two days (Thursday 28 and Friday 29 November 2024) the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, held a capacity-building workshop for African civil society actors (CSOs) on engaging with the African human rights system. The capacity-building workshop, which was hosted at 224 in Pretoria, benefited 20 participants from CSOs operating across the four regions of the African continent in these countries: Algeria, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The work of participating organisations covers diverse human rights issues including women’s rights, children’s rights, persons deprived of their liberty, sexual minorities, socio-economic rights and refugees.
The idea of the workshop was to equip participants who at the time of application had indicated an urgent need to expand their human rights work to engage with the African Human Rights System, but who were not yet able to do so at all, or effectively, on account of limited or no knowledge and skilling on relevant aspects. The design of the workshop bridged this gap by touching on the general and specific aspects of the African Human Rights System, particularly the opportunities for, and the strategies with which CSOs can effectively engage with the core human rights bodies of the African Union, namely: the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. To this was added a session on the Pan -African Parliament and its role in human rights advancement in Africa, as well as avenues for CSO engagement.
The sessions included: a general introduction to the African human rights system which was facilitated by Prof. Magnus Killander of the Centre for Human Rights, covering the history, evolution, and contemporary challenges of the African Human Rights System; as well as specific details on each of the mandated human rights bodies of the African Union, including an introduction to, avenues and practical aspects relating to engaging with the bodies. These sessions were facilitated as follows: Professor Frans Viljoen (engaging with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights); Mr. Lloyd Kuveya and Mr. Brian Kibirango (the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights); Mrs. Shyreen Chirwa and Mr. Nqobani Nyathi (the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child); Ms. Tariro Sekeramayi (avenues for engaging on human rights and democracy issues at the Pan-African Parliament); Dr. Lydia Chibwe (CSO advocacy on women’s rights and State reporting under the Maputo Protocol); and Mr. Michael Aboneka (linking litigation at the national level to regional litigation).
The workshop identified a number of avenues for CSO engagement with the African Human Rights System, namely: submitting cases to the mandated bodies to challenge human rights violations, including a presentation of the link between litigation at the national and regional levels; submitting shadow reports to complement the indications made by State reports regarding the human rights situations in their jurisdictions; engaging with special mechanisms of the bodies; preparing and presenting Statements on human rights situations in their countries during public sessions of the bodies; contributing to enhancing the African human rights system by advocating for ratification of treaties by their countries such the African Court Protocol and advocating for signing and submission of the declaration under article 34(6) of the African Court Protocol to allow individuals in their countries access to the African Court; promoting the effectiveness of African Human Rights Bodies through the provision of technical and capacity support, as well as promoting the visibility of these bodies at the national level through awareness raising and strategic litigation around the jurisprudence of these bodies.
Relatedly, the workshop enlightened the participants on the opportunities presented by CSOs to obtain ‘observer status’ before African human rights bodies, which facilitates quicker access and meaningful working relationships with the bodies. This also included sharing information on the procedure and preparatory issues such as the requirements for the application for observer status. In the pendency of attaining observer status, the participating CSOs were encouraged to explore collaborations with other CSOs that already have observer status to enable them to remotely engage with the African human rights system, for instance through sharing of information on human rights issues for inclusion in the latter’s statements.
As part of the practical exercises, participants teamed up to prepare and present mock statements to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, which they presented to a panel of experts on the human rights system. Participants were awarded a Certificate of participation in the Workshop.
The Centre for Human Rights thanks the Open Society Foundation (OSF), through the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) for the financial support with which the CSO workshop was held
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