3. Engaging with the African Commission during the sessions

This section is a reminder of what in-person attendance at the African Commission’s ordinary sessions can and cannot achieve, as well as what one needs to invest in order to get the biggest impact out of these sessions.

Resources

Attending ordinary sessions of the African Commission in person can be very useful, but it is also costly in terms of resources. You must consider the cost of flying to Banjul (or another city in Africa, as the case may be) and accommodation for the duration of your stay. In the context of attending the African Commission, this means picking and choosing which ordinary sessions are relevant to attend and which are not, depending on the session’s agenda and your own advocacy agenda.

Timing of your action

The African Commission can sometimes struggle to follow up and follow through with decisions and/or measures adopted during ordinary sessions. It is important to remember that in-person advocacy during a session may not always be best suited for emergency cases where urgent action is required, though it may also serve to attract greater public attention to a particular case. For example:

• If you want to make an oral statement on a human rights situation in your country, consider which outcome you would like to see (e.g. resolution, public statement, urgent appeal, concluding observations, etc.);
• If you want to push for a resolution or a public statement by the African Commission, or one of its members, on a human rights situation, consider whether you can begin engagement before attending the session and consider setting up a meeting with a Commissioner or multiple Commissioners to plead your case;
• If you want to draw attention to a human rights situation in your country that is an imminent matter of life or death (e.g. a detained human rights defender), engage with the African Commission from home directly, without waiting for an ordinary session, to obtain an urgent appeal.

Preparation

Bear in mind participating in an ordinary session of the African Commission also requires significant preparation to maximise your advocacy impact (key messages, side-events…), along with logistical preparation (visa, booking flights...).