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Uganda goes to the polls on 15 December 2025 and the presidential campaigns by the 8 candidates are in high gear. When the campaigns kicked off at the end of September 2025, they were dubbed peaceful and everyone thought, for the first time, that the campaigns will be a peaceful event, free from state orchestrated violence. Lo and behold, we celebrated too early, the campaigns are now bloody with 45 days left to the polling day. This is not the first time the state apparatus has meted violence on Ugandan voters. In November 2020, 54 Ugandans were killed in just two days while exercising their right to protest following the arrest of the opposition candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi. Police and other security agencies fired live ammunitions which led to their death and injured many others. Today, Uganda’s political landscape continues to be stained by the reckless and violent suppression of opposition campaigns especially the brutal dispersal of rallies organized by NUP’s presidential Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi and other opposition candidates in a few instances. What should be moments of democratic participation, public debate, and political choice have instead become scenes of horror with civilians running from gunfire, bodies lying in blood in streets, families mourning loved ones shot down for daring to attend a campaign, imagine, a mere campaign rally.
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Introduction
More than just a date, 25 November serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to end all forms of violence against women (VAW), commemorated globally as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It is also a call for decisive action to ensure justice for women who have been killed and to hold perpetrators accountable. The United Nations (UN) reports that nearly one in three women worldwide has been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence at least once in their life. Even more worrying is that despite ongoing efforts by civil society organisations and states, VAW is increasingly overshadowed by a global rise in femicide, with one woman or girl being killed every 10 minutes. This alarming trend underscores the urgent need to strengthen our collective efforts, mechanisms and legal frameworks, which remain insufficient to protect women today.
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By Belinda Matore, an LLD candidate and project officer at the Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria
Imagine a child lacing up their shoes, ready to run onto the field not just to play, but to chase dreams, sometimes their own, sometimes their parents. For many kids, sport is a source of freedom, laughter and discovery. But too often, that joy gets tangled up in adult expectations and ambitions, turning something meant to inspire into a pressure cooker. While parents play a vital role in supporting young athletes, their hopes and desires can clash with a child’s right to choose, enjoy and grow through sport. This tension raises important questions about whose dreams are really being pursued and how we can protect children’s rights to have a voice in the game.
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By Belinda Matore, an LLD candidate and project officer at the Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria
Images of children participating in sport are widespread across social media, club websites, newsletters and broadcasts. While such images celebrate achievement and community, they also expose minors to risks such as exploitation, cyberbullying, identity theft and digital permanence. In South Africa, legal protection for children’s images arises from the Constitution, common law personality rights and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Yet these frameworks only partially address how children’s images intersect with safeguarding in digital environments.
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The complicit silence or inaction of the AU at preliminary stages like these must be acknowledged and condemned for its direct contribution to the propagation of failed leadership in Africa and the perpetual suppression of its own citizens.
Recent elections in Cameroon and Tanzania have demonstrated further that even at the risk of entrenching undemocratic processes, the African Union (AU) prefers softer approaches towards the realisation of its principles of peace, security and good governance.
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By Tendai Mbanje and Tito Magoti
Reports from polling stations this morning paint a bleak picture of civic abandonment. Between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., some polling station saw no voters at all. A few women arrived between 8:45 and 10 a.m. These polling stations were not staffed by independent electoral officials, but by armed soldiers, an unmistakable symbol of coercion rather than civic participation. Most international election observers had already left the country by yesterday, citing intimidation and threats to their safety, with the EU conducting a ‘diplomatic watch.’ Meanwhile, digital repression intensified: access to platforms like X, TikTok and YouTube has been restricted since yesterday, further isolating citizens and silencing dissent. Huge military presence in major cities has created a climate of fear and terror, further diluting the whole meaning of democratic elections.
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On 26 April 2024, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. The historic Panel brought together governments, intergovernmental and international organisations, industry and civil society, to develop a set of common and voluntary principles to build trust, guide the transition and accelerate the race to renewables. The main reason for setting the panel was to insulate communities from the negative impacts of Critical Energy Transition mining activities on livelihoods, the environment, health, human security and human rights as the world jostles for renewable energy.
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As Malawi demonstrated, when citizens mobilise around shared grievances and demand accountability, no amount of rigging can suppress their voice. The message is clear: leadership must be earned through integrity, service, and results or it will be decisively rejected at the ballot box.
The September 16, 2025, presidential election results in Malawi was a referendum on the leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera. His defeat signified a rejection of an administration widely perceived as failing to fulfill its promises, neglecting the needs of ordinary Malawians, and permitting corruption and economic mismanagement. The administration’s record of economic decline contributed to widespread voter dissatisfaction. This analysis is informed by direct field experience, extensive stakeholder consultations, firsthand interactions with citizens across multiple districts, and on-the-ground election observation in Malawi. It reflects a synthesis of lived realities, local perspectives, and institutional engagement within the Malawian context.
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Thirty-one years ago, South Africa did not just promise democracy; it built institutions to guard that promise. Chief among them was the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), established to be the people’s watchdog: a body capable of investigating, advocating, and mediating when rights were under threat. Its mandate was to ensure that justice, equality, and dignity, the foundational principles of the land, were not abstract ideals but rather lived realities for every South African. Today, the paradox is stark: the country has some of the strongest rights protections on paper, yet many citizens experience democracy as hollow.
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by Awa Gai
To turn the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls into meaningful action demands all hands on deck to dismantle violence against women and girls and amplify the voices of survivors. The current call for a structured review highlight the need for stakeholer consultation to address gaps in implementation, particularly concerning Article 14.
During the 38th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 15 to 16 February 2025, the AU adopted the Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU-CEVAWG). This stems from a decision of the AU Heads of State and Government in February 2023, following which there was an endorsement to initiate negotiations for the Convention and its eventual adoption in February 2025. While this marks a significant milestone, feminist litigators and advocates who are active users of the African human rights system call for a pause to review the Convention, particularly to address gaps identified in Article 14 regarding its implementation by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
