Policy brief: Defending without being exposed. Protecting women human rights defenders in Africa

Policy brief · RFLD · November 2026

Women who support survivors of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment are doing the work of human rights defenders, yet the law rarely recognises them and grant budgets rarely cover their protection. This brief sets out what the African Commission, States and funders can do. It draws on the panel Defending without being exposed, held on 12 October 2026 on the main agenda of the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Dakar, convened and chaired by Hon. Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals, and facilitated by RFLD with the support of the SEA-T programme implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMZ.

The problem in four points

1. Recognition. A woman who accompanies a survivor to the police station or to court is often described as a volunteer, a relative or a troublemaker. Without recognition as a defender, protection does not apply.
2. Reprisals. The people women report can be close to them: a local notable, an employer, a public official. The Commission still receives reports of arbitrary arrests, judicial harassment, smear campaigns and physical attacks. Defamation complaints cost the accuser little and can ruin a frontline organisation.
3. Online violence. Online gender-based violence, recognised by the Commission in Resolution 522 (2022), follows activists into their homes and can quickly become offline danger.
4. Civic space and funding. Registration rules, reporting obligations, limits on foreign funding and laws on cybercrime or public order add up. Protection costs such as security, legal support and psychosocial care are rarely eligible in standard grant budgets.

Recommendations

To the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

• Recognise explicitly, in resolutions and in the work of the Special Rapporteurs, that women who support survivors of sexual violence at community level are human rights defenders.
• Through the Focal Point on Reprisals, follow up every report of reprisal against a woman who engaged with the Commission, and publish the follow-up.
• Use the study under Resolution 571 to assess how far national laws on associations, cybercrime and public order comply with the Guidelines on Freedom of Association and Assembly in Africa.
• Include guarantees for women defenders, including protection against online violence, in the draft African instruments under preparation.

To States

• Adopt or amend laws so that women defenders, including community workers and heads of local associations, are recognised and protected.
• Stop the use of defamation, cybercrime and public order laws against women who report abuse, and review registration and foreign-funding rules against the Commission’s Guidelines.
• Set up referral routes that respond within hours, in local languages, and that keep the identity of survivors and defenders confidential.
• Report on the protection of women defenders in periodic reports to the Commission and to the CEDAW Committee.

To funders

• Make protection costs an eligible budget line in every grant: security, legal support, digital safety and psychosocial care.
• Increase the share of funding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment that reaches organisations led by African women, and fund them directly and flexibly.
• Do not require visibility, logos or public reporting where they put partners at risk.
• Fund the regional mechanisms that support defenders, including the NGOs Forum and the work of the Special Rapporteur’s Support Group.

What RFLD will do

• Give the Support Group to the Special Rapporteur (Resolution 602) a documented account of recognition and reprisal patterns, drawn from cases registered with consent across RFLD’s network.
• Send funders recommendations on the eligibility of protection costs.
• Contribute to the study under Resolution 571.
• Make referral routes known, including RFLD’s French and Portuguese support desks on the Get Support page.

Watch and read

Watch the five interventions · Read the full panel report · African Digital Safety Compendium · West Africa legal scorecard 2026

Note de politique · Défendre sans s’exposer