We partner with civil society organisations and other stakeholders through strategic partnerships and coalitions to influence regional human rights mechanisms to fulfil their mandates and operate with accountability, transparency and based on meaningful participation.
Litigants’ Group
The Litigants Group exists to strengthen the protective mandate of ACHPR by working towards the existence of a functional and effective communications procedure. To achieve this, we believe that it is critical to attain greater transparency on how the Commission works, greater access to information on the mechanism’s operations, timely finalisation of cases, consistent development of jurisprudence and implementation of the decisions and provisional measures of the Commission. We believe that to ensure a functional and effective ACHPR communications mandate, the Litigants Group has a role to play in advocating for the adoption and implementation of progressive rules of procedure, and resolution of policy, structural, technical and interpretational barriers which impede
on the proper functioning of the ACHPR.
Women’s Platform
The Women’s Platform is an umbrella platform of women’s rights organisations working at the ACHPR. This platform seeks to strengthen the capacities and work of women’s rights organisations, deepen our relationship with the Special Rapporteur on Rights of Women in Africa, as well as rally support for all women’s rights activities and initiatives from the CSOs engaged in women’s rights issues at the ACHPR. The Women’s Platform believes that a well- coordinated collaborative focus on women’s rights issues at the regional level and at the ACHPR will contribute to the promotion and protection of these rights at the national levels. The program will strengthen the advocacy efforts of women’s rights organisations seeking to implement new norms and standard setting, using the mechanisms of the African Commission. Members are encouraged to use the Women’s Platform as a feminist space that respects and supports women’s human rights, including bodily and sexual autonomy.
AU Reforms
The AU Reforms Campaign is a civil society initiative that advocates for a transparent, accountable, and effective African Union (AU). The campaign focuses on ensuring that the AU reforms, which commenced in 2017, strengthen, rather than undermine, the African Human Rights System, especially in light of the proposed changes that could significantly impact human rights, governance, and civic space across the continent. In light of the complete lack of consultation with civil society organizations CSOs, The AU Reforms Campaign is dedicated to ensuring that CSOs and other stakeholders are actively engaged in the reforms of the African Union (AU). The campaign focuses on safeguarding human rights, advancing gender equality, and ensuring that the AU remains accountable to African citizens. for a transparent, effective, and inclusive AU reform process.
Article 59(1) Campaign
The Article 59(1) Campaign is an initiative led by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) committed to reinforcing the protective mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission). This campaign seeks to address the challenges arising from the current interpretation of Article 59(1) of the African Charter by the African Commission, which extends confidentiality to all aspects of communications proceedings, including legal submissions and party identities. This restrictive interpretation undermines access to information, violates the right to a fair and public hearing, and hampers advocacy efforts. Our goal is to advocate for a progressive interpretation of Article 59(1) that aligns with international human rights standards, enhances transparency, and creates a more conducive environment for human rights litigation in Africa.
Coalition for the Independence of the African Commission (CIAC)
CIAC is a collective of organisations and individuals who seek to protect and defend the independence of the ACHPR. Its efforts are based on the premise that both regional and international human rights bodies and civil society play an essential role in holding states accountable for commitments made through ratifying human rights treaties. Importantly, holding states accountable for human rights violations by ensuring people are not oppressed under the pretext of sovereignty. CIAC’s activities focus on
- Education of and engagement with activists and women human rights defenders on independence
- Influencing the Commission and States on the principle of independence of the Commission
- Pushing back against States which attack the mechanism itself
We build strategic partnerships where we proactively and deliberately establish, sustain and build bilateral relationships nationally, regionally and in focal countries to strengthen knowledge, litigation, capacity building and contribute to building movements. This includes Legal Research Support where we partner with institutions and with individual feminist scholars and researchers who do legal research that support our priority areas.
Bridging the Gap
This coalition between the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights (DOI), the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) and the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) has over the years steadily refined its collective mission to ‘bridge the gap’ in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) norms and standards in East and Southern Africa through research, capacity strengthening and litigation.
The success of this coalition lies in the three organisations’ collective contribution of years of experience and diverse expertise on various issues relating to SRHR and sexual harassment. Bridging the Gap has over the years adopted creative strategies and demonstrated unparalleled competency in the areas of capacity building, policy reforms, research and litigation.
ISLA Panel of Experts
The ISLA Panel of Experts is a platform through which ISLA actively promotes and supports the contributions by feminist Africans in the human rights and social justice sphere.
ISLA is intentional about expanding the pool of feminists who work at the intersection of the law and feminism using the law as a tool for social change. In light of this, the establishment of the panel of experts is an important opportunity for ISLA to work with researchers and academics who share its ways of working and are interested in assisting ISLA’s theory of change to travel to, and be influenced by, various disciplines.
IPE is an opportunity for ISLA to form strategic collaborations with lawyers, researchers and academics who share its ways of working and are interested in assisting ISLA’s theory of change to travel to, and be influenced by, various disciplines. IPE seeks to render visibility to feminist Africans who are making intellectual and scholarly contributions using the law as a tool for social change.
ISLA works with African Feminists, Women, LGBTI people, allies, activists, including Africans in the diaspora, who are lawyers, researchers or academics across disciplines in IPE. Beyond the legal sector, IPE invites experts across disciplines such as sociology, politics, economic justice, psychology, M&E, research and learning, etc. We also work with law schools, law firms, research institutes, NGOs, trade unions and journalists.
African Feminist Judgement Project (AFJ)
The practice of academic rewriting of judgment is not new, nor is the practice of feminist rewriting of judgments. The African Feminist Judgment Project draws from sister projects around the world in which feminist academics, lawyers and activists have written alternative feminist judgments in leading cases.
At the heart of the project are the following questions — what might we mean by a landmark case in the African context? What is feminist judicial practice in Africa and what might we want it to be? How might alternative feminist judgments contribute to African jurisprudence, legal practice and judicial decision-making? What are the specific Constitutional and historical contexts within which the project must be understood?
Can we provide better judgments or write them differently if we do so from an explicitly feminist standpoint? Our project explores the potential of the device of the ‘shadow feminist judgment’.
The African Feminist Judgment Project is coordinated by Sibongile Ndashe (Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, Johannesburg), Dr Sharifah Sekalala (Warwick Law School) and Professor Ambreena Manji (Cardiff Law School). It builds on similar projects (Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and USA) to draft and disseminate alternative judgments for important African landmark cases on a range of legal issues.
We work with and alongside civil society organisations to support the development of their political and institutional capabilities to deliver on their own mandates and to work together, taking collective action to achieve common goals.
Challenging Anti-Rights Actors
CARA is an emerging trans-national collaboration to explore using the courts to resisting anti-rights actors and challenging disinformation that is used by, for example, right-wing fundamentalists who now frame their fights as freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and anti-discrimination.
African Civil Society Engagement (ACSE)
The African Civil Society Engagement (ACSE) is a platform for and by African Civil Society Organisations that provides a crucial platform for African civil society organizations to enhance their engagement with the ACHPR. Our mission is to create a space to incubate ideas, share knowledge, and build capacity for meaningful advocacy. We empower civil society organizations by strengthening their understanding of both the ACHPR system—its values, standards, and procedures—and the real-world dynamics between key stakeholders, including the African Union, member states, and civil society. For more information on ACSE, please visit our website: https://africancivilsociety.org