By Sirrah Touray
The 87th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights opened in Banjul with a blunt reckoning: landmark legal reforms are colliding with escalating sexual violence, digital repression, and direct attacks on judges and human rights defenders.
The Gambia set the tone by announcing the withdrawal of all reservations to the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. The move ends restrictions dating to 2006 on marriage, divorce, inheritance, and sexual and reproductive health.
Fatou Kinteh, Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, said the decision gives women “stronger legal rights” and challenges other states to follow.
The session marks 45 years since the African Charter’s adoption and 40 years since it came into force. The Charter has been ratified by 54 of 55 African Union member states. But ratification has not stopped widespread abuse.
Ramatoulie Jallow of SIHA Network documented a surge in conflict-related sexual violence in the Greater Horn. Between 2023 and 2025, SIHA recorded 1,294 cases of sexual and gender-based violence in Sudan, with 77% classified as rape. In South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal alone, at least two women or girls face sexual violence daily.
In Somalia, female genital mutilation affects over 99% of women and girls aged 15 to 49. In Ethiopia, gender-based violence rates hit 51%, with ongoing sexual violence in Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia amid intensifying censorship.
“At the center of these crises is conflict-related sexual violence, where the bodies of women and girls are used as tools of subjugation,” Jallow said.
Salma El Hosseiny of the International Service for Human Rights said civic space is collapsing. Tanzania shut down more than 80,000 online platforms in 2025. In the DRC, journalists and activists in North and South Kivu face attacks from state forces and armed groups including M23 and AFC. Burkina Faso is using new laws to restrict civil society, while Angola has applied anti-terrorism charges to journalists.
“In Sudan, defenders are detained and tortured for documenting war crimes. In Morocco-occupied Sahrawi territory, defenders face criminalisation, abuse, and systematic restrictions on basic freedoms,” El Hosseiny said.
International lawyers told the Commission that violations in Sudan have reached “a paroxysm of atrocity,” with over 150,000 estimated deaths and famine confirmed in Darfur. They also flagged bilateral deals where non-African states deport third-country nationals to African countries, citing individuals held in South Sudan without charge.
The International Commission of Jurists warned of a judicial independence crisis. In Tunisia, Judge Anas Hamedi, President of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates, was sentenced to one year in prison on 6 April 2026 for denouncing the executive’s dissolution of the High Judicial Council. Egypt’s new criminal procedure code gives prosecutors unchecked power to extend pre-trial detention. In Libya, political conflict is fracturing the judiciary.
Dr Musa Kika cited election-related violence in Mozambique in 2023, Tanzania and Cameroon in October 2025, and Uganda in January 2026. He also raised alarm over ongoing violence in Nigeria’s central belt and condemned delays at the Commission, where some cases have stalled for five to ten years.
“Delay denies justice,” Kika said. He rejected the Commission’s draft declaration on human rights defenders, arguing its language could be weaponised by states to repress civil society.
Delegates demanded that the Commission hold member states to account under the African Charter and the Maputo Protocol, demand an immediate end to hostilities in conflict zones, and halt arms transfers used to commit atrocities. They called for accountability in Sudan, protection for women human rights defenders, and unrestricted access for the Commission to monitor violations.
