Ordinary sessions of the African Commission are a great opportunity to meet with a variety of key stakeholders, including Commissioners, ACHPR staff members, State representatives, AU representatives, NHRI representatives, civil society and other officials. Meetings can serve to directly alert stakeholders to the urgency of a particular human rights situation or to directly plead your case to them to effect change, as well as being perfect avenues for networking with other NGOs, learning from one another, scaling efforts, and creating lasting relationships.
In particular, informal bilateral or small group meetings can serve to further your engagement with Special mechanisms (see Section 2.3 Special Mechanisms - Why are they useful?), participating in and contributing to thematic reports, soft law instruments, and other initiatives by Commissioners. Finally, meetings can be a great way to solicit information on the progress of a particular case you are following before the African Commission.
Meetings with key stakeholders offer the opportunity to:
Florian Irangabiye is a Burundian journalist, whose voice plays a critical role in ensuring the Burundian government is held accountable. In August 2022, she was arbitrarily arrested for “undermining the integrity of the national territory” and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in January 2023. On 14th August 2024, she regained freedom thanks to the mobilisation of civil society and commissioners. In the call for her release, the African Commission played a significant role in highlighting her plight, via the country rapporteur for Burundi, Hon. Marie Louise ABOMO. She addressed Floriane's case several times and the need to ensure a safe working environment for human rights defenders, notably while reporting at the 79th ordinary session in Banjul thanks to a lot of advocacy meetings.
In Angola, civic space continues to shrink, as the government has restricted freedom of expression, as well as engaging in enforced disappearances and torture of human rights defenders, journalists, and other members of civil society. Angolan human rights organisations (including Kutakesa, Mosaiko, the Angolan Journalists Union) have been engaging with the African Commission and its Special mechanisms to draw attention to their plight. In particular, they have engaged with the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information to “name and shame” the Angola government, putting pressure on them to abide by their international obligations and participate in the proceedings of the African human rights system.
Through their advocacy during the sessions and in between, including through a lot of meetings, Angolan human rights defenders were successful in bringing the African Commissioners to Angola for an academic visit in the country in July 2024, laying the groundwork for the Angolan government to participate in the country’s periodic state review in October of that same year at the 81st Ordinary Session of the African Commission, a major first after years of absence. They were also able to push for the greater use of Portuguese in the proceedings of the African Commission, historically an important barrier for the participation of civil society from Portuguese-speaking African countries.
