To attract a promotion visit of the African Commission to your country, you can engage in one of two ways.
Firstly, you can lobby your government to issue an official invitation to the African Commission and be included in the travel itinerary/agenda of the African Commission’s promotion visit in your country.
Secondly, where engaging with your government is not possible, you can engage with the African Commission directly to convince them to request an invitation from your government. To do this, you should reach out to the African Commission’s Secretariat which can typically be done by email ([email protected]). You should provide information to the Commissioners on places to visit and people to meet while in your country - for example, universities, research institutes and think tanks, your country’s national human rights institution, other NGOs in addition to your own, victims of human rights abuses, representatives of affected communities, members of the government, parliament or judiciary (either sympathetic to your cause or that you seek to influence), the press, etc. It is important to reflect on the goals and desired impact of the country visit. Typically, this will be to bring the government’s attention to their international obligations relating to human rights.
In general, you should:
Promotional visits and activities can also include seminars, conferences, and symposia.
In 2021, the Tanzanian government had devised a plan to relocate about 82,000 Maasai people from their homes and ancestral lands in Arusha region’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) by 2027. Human rights defenders from the communities stood up, but the authorities denied widespread reports of violent forced evictions against them. They also denied requests from intergovernmental organisations to conduct fact-finding missions in Ngorongoro. The government did, however, allow an African Commission delegation to undertake a promotion mission between 23 and 28 January 2023. The delegation raised concerns multiple times about forced evictions of Maasais, noting a lack of adequate consultation with, and inclusion of, the local communities in the demarcation exercise of lands they laid claim to; and reports of the use of force and threats against community members who contested the demarcation.
See the next sections on how you can engage in other aspects of the work of the African Commission, including following up on your engagement with the African Commission.
