THE “THIRD STRUGGLE” FOR FREEDOM IN AFRICA When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN in 1948, much of Africa was still in its first struggle for liberation from colonial rule. Only three African countries were present at the UN for the vote: Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. Apartheid South Africa abstained. Below: Activists take part in a protest demanding the police conduct more investigations into the murders and kidnappings of women in Kampala, Uganda, 5 June, 2018. © Sumy Sadurni/AFP/Getty Images. Bottom: Tendai Biti of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change is surrounded by police officers as he walks past a prison vehicle. He was given bail at Harare Magistrates Court on 9 August 2018 after facing charges of public violence as well as the illegal declaration of election results. © Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images.
After independence came the struggle to guarantee human rights in law and practice, often against a backdrop of one-party states, brutal repression and persecution of dissenters. Today, the struggle is far from won, but the intervening decades have seen extraordinary progress. Human rights defenders’ tireless campaigning, often at great personal risk, has led to the Universal Declaration’s founding principles including freedom from fear and want being enshrined in regional human rights treaties, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as in the national laws of most, if not all, African countries. But the struggle continues: a fierce “third” struggle to make national laws and regional human rights obligations and commitments worth more than just the paper they are written on. While sub-Saharan African states have become adept at speaking the language of human rights, too many continued in 2018 to brutally repress dissent and restrict the space in which individuals and organizations can defend human rights.
STATE-SPONSORED INTIMIDATION AND HARASSMENT In the south, critics of the Zambian government have been harassed and charged on spurious grounds. The most prominent example involves the ongoing trial of six activists, including rapper Fumba Chama (also known as Pilato), who were arrested in September for protesting against exorbitant levels of government spending. Mozambique imposed prohibitively high accreditation fees on journalists and media houses in July, in an attempt to clamp down on independent reporting. In March, Ericino de Salema, a journalist, was kidnapped and beaten, contributing to a growing climate of fear. The continuing persecution faced by environmental rights activists in Madagascar is illustrated by the suspended sentences against Raleva and Christopher Manenjika which were confirmed on appeal in May and June respectively. In Niger, Moussa Tchangari, Ali Idrissa, Nouhou Arzika and Lirwana Abdourahmane, prominent activists, were detained in March for organizing protests against a new finance law. Lirwana Abdourahmane remains in jail. The Sierra Leonean authorities continue to restrict peaceful demonstrations, while the killings of protesters by police go unpunished. In Togo, authorities arrested pro-democracy activists
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