Dakar · 5 and 6 October 2026 · On the margins of the 89th Ordinary Session of the ACHPR
Women who defend human rights in Africa are attacked for what they do and for who they are. That was the message Bathor Seck, RFLD Country Director for Senegal, brought to a regional workshop convened in Dakar by Lawyers Without Borders (Avocats Sans Frontières) on 5 and 6 October 2026, on the margins of the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The workshop, titled “Regional workshop for sharing experiences and strengthening alliances between human rights defenders and civil society organisations”, was organised with the African Commission and in partnership with Canada. It brought together defenders, lawyers and civil society organisations from across the region to compare what protects defenders in practice, and where protection still fails. Bathor Seck spoke on the panel on behalf of RFLD.
Why women defenders need a specific answer
Her presentation, “Women human rights defenders, digital violence and protection mechanisms in Africa”, started from a simple observation. Women defenders face the same risks as any person who speaks in public about rights. They also face violence that targets them as women: sexual threats, misogynistic insults, smear campaigns about their private lives and attacks on their reputation.
This violence has a purpose. It seeks to isolate women from their communities and, in the end, to push them out of public life. A protection system that ignores gender will miss most of these attacks, because they rarely look like the threats that security plans were designed for.
Digital violence is real violence
Bathor Seck described the forms that technology-facilitated violence now takes against women defenders in West Africa: cyberharassment, sexist and misogynistic hate speech, the sharing of intimate images or personal information without consent, impersonation, surveillance and tracking, coordinated attacks and disinformation campaigns.
The consequences reach far beyond the screen. Women censor themselves or leave social networks altogether. Their mental health suffers. Some face physical danger once their address or daily routine has been exposed online, and many lose professional opportunities. For organisations, every defender who withdraws is a voice the community loses.
RFLD’s approach: prevent, protect, advocate
She then set out how RFLD works on these risks with its member organisations.
For RFLD, digital security is part of a defender’s overall security. Protection mechanisms must be accessible, fast, confidential and gender-sensitive. Police officers, magistrates, national human rights institutions and technology companies need training on these attacks. Psychosocial and legal support must be part of every response, and feminist and human rights organisations should be recognised as frontline actors in their own right.
NAFASI: defending Africa’s digital civic space
Bathor Seck also presented NAFASI, a three-year initiative whose name means “space” in Swahili. RFLD implements it with Magamba Network in Zimbabwe and DefendDefenders in Uganda. The consortium works to defend the space, online and offline, where civil society, journalists and human rights defenders do their work.
The initiative rests on policy and governance work, digital resilience, and the power of networks across the continent. RFLD’s role is to make sure that the space being defended is equal for women and open to French-speaking countries.
Within NAFASI, RFLD leads training on digital rights in French and English. It also organises diplomatic dialogues on spyware and technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and is building a network of environmental justice defenders in West Africa. With DefendDefenders, RFLD co-manages a 24/7 digital helpline, with capacity in French and Portuguese, for activists facing digital emergencies.
Three commitments to carry together
Bathor Seck closed with three commitments that RFLD asks States, institutions and civil society to share:
- Recognise digital violence as a human rights issue and as part of the protection of defenders.
- Put in place protection mechanisms that are truly gender-sensitive and adapted to digital threats.
- Strengthen the alliances between feminist organisations, defenders, national institutions, States and the African mechanisms.
From Dakar to the Commission
The workshop opened a busy week for RFLD in Dakar. Our delegation takes part in the NGOs Forum, where RFLD holds a panel with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa. On 12 October, the panel “Defending without being exposed”, on the protection of women human rights defenders, takes place on the main agenda of the Commission. The alliances built at the Lawyers Without Borders workshop will feed directly into that work.
We thank Lawyers Without Borders for the invitation and for creating a space where defenders and organisations can learn from each other, and the African Commission and Canada for their support to the workshop.
RFLD is a pan-African Afrofeminist network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 African countries, with observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Media enquiries: communications.info@rflgd.org.
Read more: why technology-facilitated violence against women is a human rights issue, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa joins our panel at the NGOs Forum and our Survivor Support Toolkit.
