Issued by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), March 2026 — Principles Engaged: 3, 4(a), 12, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46
Submission Date: May 2026
Response(s) to the call for inputs:
Pierre J. D. (2026). Unconstitutional Power and the Unprotected Defender: Military Governance, Civic Space Collapse, and the Operative Inadequacy of Principle 12 in the Sahel Region.
This submission was presented to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in response to a formal call for inputs on the Draft Declaration on the Promotion of the Role of Human and Peoples’ Rights Defenders and Their Protection in Africa. Focused on the Sahel sub-region — Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — it analyses the operative inadequacy of Principle 12 in post-coup governance contexts where six successful coups between 2020 and 2023 produced systematic, institutionalised repression of human rights defenders. Drawing on Ubuntu philosophy and the Kurukan Fuga Charter, it proposes a consequence architecture for post-coup contexts, an enumeration of forced military conscription as a prohibited reprisal, and a civic space crisis protocol. Relevant to African human rights practitioners, AU policy specialists, civil society organisations working in the Sahel, and scholars of African constitutional law.
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