PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ICNL AND CIDH TO RESHAPE CIVIC SPACE IN NORTH AFRICA

The International Center For Not- For- Profit Law (ICNL) has signed a partnership with the Independent Commission for Human Rights in North Africa (CIDH) to strengthen the promotion and protection of association and assembly rights in North Africa by increasing engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and its mechanisms and legal/policy instruments.

The main objective of the project is to enhance the knowledge and capacity of North African CSOs to engage with the ACHPR and its special mechanisms, particularly by using the ACHPR Guidelines on Freedom of Association and Assembly in Africa (the ACHPR Guidelines) and to strengthen work on Freedom of Association and Assembly at national and regional levels.

The Specific objectives of this project are to: (1) Strengthen understanding among key stakeholders and the broader public on how to use the ACHPR Guidelines to protect and promote civic space in North Africa; (2) Build the capacity of civil society, human rights defenders and policymakers to advocate for a rights-based approach in developing, assessing and implementing laws affecting freedoms of association and assembly; (3) To encourage the use of the Guidelines in the development of laws and policies related to the freedoms of association and assembly in North Africa.

Further to this initiative, CIDH effectively contributed in the NGOs Forum of the African CSOs which is held annually by ACDHRS. The report and recommendations from this forum are submitted during ACHPR ordinary sessions. CIDH and its partners have submitted various communications to the ACHPR Commission denouncing violations of women rights, freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly rights. CIDH has been highly involved in leading grassroots initiative for freedom of expression, association and assembly in North Africa.

For more information, please contact the CIDH Executive Director at cidh10@yahoo.com or +212 610-112452. Visit our platforms: https://cidh-afrique.org/

https://web.facebook.com/AfriqueCIDH

https://twitter.com/CIDH_Afrique

Rapport du Vice Président de la CADHP, S.E. Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu

Le présent rapport est soumis conformément à l’article 64 du Règlement Intérieur de la Commission africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples (la Commission) adopté à sa 27ème Session ordinaire tenue du 19 février au 4 mars 2020. Il fait le point des activités entreprises depuis la 65ème Session ordinaire de la Commission tenue à Banjul du 21 octobre au 10 novembre 2019 en République de Gambie. Conformément à l’article 66 du Règlement intérieur, ce rapport est destiné à une diffusion générale.

Le rapport rend compte des activités menées durant la période dite intersession, en notre qualité du Bureau, de membre la Commission, de membre du Groupe de travail sur les populations/communautés autochtones, les activités menées au titre du mandat de Rapporteur Spécial sur les défenseurs des droits de l’homme en Afrique et Point Focal sur les représailles en Afrique. Il présente aussi une brève analyse de la situation des Défenseurs des droits de l’homme en Afrique, des conclusions et des recommandations.

CIDH Communication addressed to the 66th Ordianry Session of the ACHPR

Read by THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CIDH

Mr Naji Moulay lahsen

July 2020

The world is now facing an unprecedented health pandemic – Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The epidemic began in China in December 2019 and has spread at an alarming rate in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

It spread rapidly across North Africa recording significant cases of COVID-19. Although the pandemic is considered a « health problem », its management and impact has critical economic, social, political and psychological consequences.

At the same time, the emergency has bred new responses, and forms of both local and global solidarity, that either build on existing, positive official or unofficial responses to the virus or compensate for a lack thereof.

Several measures have been taken to counter this disease, which has both an economic and social impact on the lives of populations. Lifestyles have been strongly shaken and disrupted. In this new context, it is important to ensure that vulnerable groups are not yet marginalized or suffer more seriously from the effects of this disease. Indeed, throughout the continent, ngos and civil society are mobilized to contribute to the response to this pandemic, and we must continue to maintain pressure and advocacy so that the fundamental freedoms that are the foundation of our societies are maintained; so that the rights to health and health services are the same for all, rich and poor; so that freedom of expression is promoted to the fullest extent; so that the freedoms of movement that have been momentarily interrupted are restored; so that governments do not use this pandemic to restrict civic spaces. Because in the face of death we are all equal.

While everyone is definitely affected by the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality of its impact on the well-being of women and girls, not only in Africa but around the world, calls for a special response.

With indebted economies, weak health systems, entrenched systems, social inequalities and a crude political elite class, human rights defenders are experiencing the impact of COVID-19.

In general, defenders, journalists, lawyers, youth, civil society organizations, institutions, sexual minorities and other vulnerable groups are already suffering the full impact of this pandemic.

The CIDH has carried out several activities to monitor, coordinate and support human rights defenders in North Africa by limiting the spread of the virus and reducing the impact while strengthening solidarity with those on the front line and most affected.

CIDH calls on the African Commission for Human Rights to:

1. Include civil society in contingency plans and ensure that government responses address intersectional oppression.

2. Advocate and influence the provision of services and interventions for human rights defenders imprisoned in prisons.

3. Advocate and influence the formulation and subsequent implementation of

compliance with human rights response and recovery policies at the national, regional and global levels.

4. Instill real-time mechanisms to assess and monitor the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on human rights defenders in all their diversity and share timely, reliable and authoritative information and analysis on COVID-19.

5. Mobilize and coordinate the response of human rights organizations in its multidimensional diversity to strengthen networks and build solidarity for sustainable transformative interventions.

THANK YOU