The public segment of the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights opened in Dakar on 12 October 2026 and runs until 21 October. RFLD’s new manual, Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, uses this session as a live example of how State reporting works. Four State reports are on the agenda. Three of them include the Maputo Protocol.
The four reviews
According to the session programme published by the International Service for Human Rights, the State reviews are scheduled as follows:
- Mauritius, Thursday 15 October, 10:00 to 13:30: the 11th periodic report under the African Charter, covering 2019 to 2024. No Maputo Protocol report is listed.
- Zambia, Friday 16 October, 09:00 to 12:30: the 8th Charter report and the 1st Maputo Protocol report, covering 2020 to 2025. An initial report under the Kampala Convention is also listed.
- Cameroon, Saturday 17 October, 09:00 to 12:30: the 7th to 9th Charter reports, the 1st to 3rd Maputo Protocol reports, the 1st to 3rd Kampala Convention reports and initial reports under the Protocols on persons with disabilities and older persons, covering 2019 to 2024.
- Guinea-Bissau, Saturday 17 October, 14:30 to 17:30: a Charter report covering 1988 to 2025 and a Maputo Protocol report covering 2010 to 2025.
For Zambia and Guinea-Bissau, these are first reports under the Protocol. Cameroon is presenting its first three Maputo reports together. Once these are examined, the number of States that have ever reported under the Protocol should rise. At the 81st Session in October 2024, the figure stood at 21 of 45 States Parties.
What a combined report tells us
Guinea-Bissau’s Charter report covers 37 years. The manual uses it to show the “combined report” route that a long-overdue State can take. A single document can clear decades of missed reporting. For civil society, this has two consequences. The State report will be broad and sometimes thin on detail, which leaves room for precise evidence. And shadow reporters must decide which period and which issues to prioritise, since 15 pages cannot cover 37 years.
Reservations are on the table
Two of the four States are on the list of nine States with reservations or declarations on the Maputo Protocol. Cameroon has made a general interpretive declaration. Mauritius holds reservations to seven provisions: Articles 4(2)(k), 6(c), 9, 10(2)(d), 11(3), 12(2) and 14(2)(c).
The manual makes a practical point here. Even a review limited to the African Charter is an opening to raise the Protocol. A Commissioner can ask Mauritius whether it plans to withdraw its reservations, and civil society can suggest the wording of that question. The Commission has adopted Resolution 632 (2025) on raising awareness for States to withdraw reservations, and in 2026 it published an Advocacy Framework for Withdrawing Reservations. Both give Commissioners a solid basis to press the point. RFLD’s country briefs on lifting the reservations go into each State’s position in detail.
The shadow report deadline has passed
Rule 79(3) of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure asks for shadow reports at least 30 days before the examination of the State report. For the 89th Session, the deadlines fell between 15 and 17 September 2026, depending on the State. The manual uses this calculation as its first calendar exercise: start from the date of the review and count back.
Groups that missed the deadline still have options during the session. Organisations with observer status can make statements under the agenda items on the human rights situation and on activity reports. Any group can brief the Country Rapporteur Commissioner or the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, provided it is concise and well sourced.
How to follow the session
The Commission streams its public sessions live on its YouTube channel. Watching a State review is one of the best ways to learn. You see which questions Commissioners ask and where the delegation’s answers stay vague. The manual suggests that learners note each unanswered question. These become the starting point for follow-up and for the next shadow report.
Statements on the human rights situation are scheduled on 12, 13, 14, 18 and 19 October. State reviews fall under agenda item 10, and activity reports, including that of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, under item 7.
After Dakar
Concluding observations are usually adopted at the next session, and never more than two sessions after the examination. They go to the State within 30 days and are then published online. For organisations in the States that presented Maputo reports, that is the moment to start the follow-up work described in Module 8 of the manual: build a national plan and assign each recommendation to a responsible institution. Keeping a file of evidence for each recommendation prepares the next report.
For everyone else, the 89th Session is a reminder to check now when your own State is due. Once a State report appears on the Commission’s website, there is usually a window of a few months to prepare a strong shadow report.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
