📍 Banjul, The Gambia
🗓 2–22 May 2025 (Public Session: 2–12 May | Closing Ceremony: 22 May)
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) is pleased to announce its upcoming 83rd Ordinary Session, taking place in Banjul, The Gambia, from 2 to 22 May 2025. This major continental event brings together African Union member states, national and international human rights organizations, civil society, and human rights defenders to assess and advance the human rights agenda across the continent.
🔹 Why Attend?
This session offers a unique platform to:
Hear firsthand updates on the human rights situation across Africa
Engage with panel discussions on key issues like gender-based violence, freedom of expression, rights of displaced persons, and transitional justice
Follow the presentation and review of State Reports from countries including Ethiopia and Zimbabwe
Attend the Second Joint Forum of the Special Mechanisms, a dynamic gathering of ACHPR’s thematic mandate holders
Network with leading human rights advocates, NGOs, NHRIs, and AU bodies
Witness the presentation of Activity Reports from Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups tackling critical human rights themes
🔹 Featured Topics & Panels
Silencing violence against human rights defenders
Current human rights situation in Sudan
Extrajudicial killings in counter-terrorism
Reparations and justice for Africans and people of African descent
Ending violence against women – launching of the SRRWA’s newsletter
Torture-Free Trade Treaty initiative
Human rights in conflict zones, with lessons from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
🔹 Event Structure
Public Session: 2–12 May 2025
Closing Ceremony: 22 May 2025 (includes Final Communiqué and press briefing)
Find the full draft program here