The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has concluded its 89th Ordinary Session in Dakar, adopting one thematic resolution and five administrative resolutions, deciding 16 communications and approving one referral to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Its final communiqué, dated 21 October, records the session’s decisions and institutional business. It does not disclose the individual outcomes of the communications, so the totals should not be read as findings for or against any party.
A death-penalty vote resolution
The thematic resolution concerns the biennial United Nations General Assembly vote calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The communiqué records its adoption but does not reproduce its full text or say how the Commission expects states to respond. The action is therefore best understood as a formal position on the subject of the vote, not evidence that a moratorium has been enacted across Africa or that national death-penalty laws have changed.
Five further resolutions renew mandates within the Commission’s system. They cover the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Africa; the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the focal point on reprisals; the support group attached to that mandate; the Working Group on Extractive Industries, the Environment and Human Rights Violations; and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. The communiqué labels the last two as draft resolutions, although it lists them among the five administrative resolutions adopted in plenary. Their mandate renewals continue the institutional work assigned to these mechanisms; the document does not specify the renewed terms or resources.
Sixteen communications, one referral
The Commission says it adopted decisions on 16 communications: eight on the merits, seven on admissibility and one request to review a decision on the merits. These are distinct procedural categories. A merits decision addresses a communication’s substance, while admissibility concerns whether it can proceed under the Commission’s procedures. The communiqué gives no case names, parties, allegations or individual dispositions. It would therefore be misleading to infer that any particular complaint was upheld, rejected or otherwise resolved in a given way.
Separately, the Commission approved referral of one communication to the African Court, describing this within the two bodies’ complementary relationship. A referral is not itself a judgment by the Court. The communiqué does not identify the communication or explain the next procedural steps, leaving the substance and eventual outcome open.
New observers and broader institutional work
Six non-governmental organisations received observer status: Both Ends Believing, Committee for Justice, La Tribune Jeunes pour le Droit au Mali, L’Association des Juristes Sénégalaises, Forum des Juristes Algériens and the Qui Vive Foundation for the Preservation of Human Development. Observer status enables participation in the Commission’s work under its applicable rules; the final communiqué does not detail each organisation’s planned activity. The total number of NGOs holding that status now stands at 606, according to the Commission.
Two institutions were granted affiliate status: Senegal’s Observatoire national des lieux de privation de liberté and Djibouti’s National Human Rights Commission. The total number of affiliate institutions was reported as 41. The Commission also adopted or considered reports and studies, including work on integrating economic, social and cultural rights into national development plans and on COVID-19’s impact on Indigenous populations and communities. It examined Botswana’s initial report under the Maputo Protocol and considered periodic reports from Mauritius, Zambia and Guinea-Bissau.
Reporting gaps remain
The communiqué’s account of periodic reporting under the African Charter points to uneven submission among states. It says eight countries are up to date; five are at the examination stage; six have one report overdue; ten have two overdue; two have three overdue; 18 have more than three overdue; and five have not submitted an initial report. These figures describe reporting status as presented by the Commission, not a measure of the human-rights situation in any country. The statement does not name the countries in each category.
The public session ran in person in Dakar from 12 to 21 October, following a private online segment from 21 September to 1 October. The Commission reports 1,601 participants, including representatives of 37 states, regional and international organisations, national human-rights institutions, non-governmental organisations and media. It also held panels on issues including climate change, detention conditions, statelessness and the safety of human-rights defenders, and launched four publications.
The communiqué marks the session’s final outcomes, distinct from the earlier opening and decade-long roadmap discussions in Dakar. It records decisions and totals but supplies limited detail about case-level results, implementation timetables or follow-up. Those limits matter: resolutions and renewed mandates establish institutional actions, while their practical effects depend on subsequent work and state engagement. The next public ordinary session was proposed for Mozambique in the first half of 2027; the communiqué records this as a proposal, not a confirmed venue.
