At the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) held in Banjul, The Gambia, the Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda (WHRDN-U) raised concern over the shrinking civic space and the growing repression faced by women human rights defenders in Uganda.
Through a panel discussion on “Civic Space Under Threat” and an oral statement delivered to the Commission, WHRDN-U shared firsthand testimonies showing how women defenders across the country—journalists, lawyers, environmental activists, and community organizers—are being silenced for speaking truth to power and demanding accountability.
During the panel discussion, WHRDN-U highlighted that governments, security agencies, and corporations, as well as certain community actors, are using criminalization, surveillance, intimidation, and public shaming to suppress women who defend human rights. Anti-gender movements have intensified these attacks, seeking to erase feminist voices and delegitimize the struggle for gender equality.
Examples shared included women who have been arrested for documenting corruption, environmental activists humiliated for protesting forced evictions, and human rights defenders threatened online or censored for their advocacy. Others have been targeted under discriminatory laws, accused of promoting ideas contrary to traditional norms, or punished for providing support to vulnerable groups.
As Uganda moves toward another election cycle, women defenders continue to face heightened state harassment. Female journalists report censorship, lawyers representing detainees are followed and threatened, and activists documenting abuses are accused of being politically motivated. In northern Uganda, women organizing peace dialogues have faced intimidationnder new security laws that allow military courts to try civilians.
The oral statement delivered by WHRDN-U to the African Commission emphasized that between 2020 and 2024, the network verified over 260 attacks against women defenders in Uganda, including arbitrary arrests, online harassment, sexualized violence, and public defamation. These are not isolated incidents but a systemic effort to silence women’s participation in public life and close civic space.
WHRDN-U called upon the African Commission to urge the Government of Uganda to recognize and protect women human rights defenders as essential actors in democracy and peacebuilding, to end the criminalization of legitimate advocacy, and to safeguard freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. The organization further called for the adoption of a gender-responsive Human Rights Defenders Bill aligned with international standards, a comprehensive study on the situation of WHRDs across Africa, and the implementation of holistic, feminist protection measures that ensure safety, psychosocial well-being, and freedom from reprisals.
In both interventions, WHRDN-U stressed that the struggle of women defenders is not only about individual safety but about the future of civic life and democracy in Uganda. When women defenders are silenced, entire communities lose their voice. When they are protected, democracy and justice thrive.
Despite growing risks, women defenders across Uganda continue to organize, educate, and protect others. Their resilience is a reminder that protecting women defenders is not an act of charity, it is an act of justice and a moral imperative for governments and society at large.
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