Convened By
In Partnership With
Southern African human rights actors are shaping the region’s priorities for the future of human rights.
Gaborone, Botswana
Southern Africa has played a historic leadership role in shaping the continent’s norms through liberation struggles, anti-apartheid solidarity, and jurisprudence advancing both civil, political, and socio-economic rights. Yet today, this foundation is under unprecedented strain with human rights challenges and implementation gaps that persist.
Democratic deficits, widening inequality, cost-of-living crises, shrinking civic space, misuse of digital technologies, normalized violence, exploitation of critical minerals, and the upending of a norms-based global order are threatening the human rights ecosystem.
The question is no longer simply how to defend human rights under pressure. It is how to renew the human rights ecosystem so that it is more resilient, more preventive, more protective, and more central to Southern Africa's future development.
Honor constitutional traditions, liberation history, and hard-won gains.
Respond to democratic deficits, inequality, digital threats, and shrinking civic space.
Build a future-fit human rights ecosystem for equitable development and shared prosperity.
The three-day convening will examine the region’s particular risks, opportunities, and comparative advantages and work towards a shared, Southern Africa-driven vision and actionable priorities. These will feed into the wider continental process on reimagining the future of human rights.
Leverage Southern Africa's constitutional traditions and legal innovation to defend and expand rights.
Address widening inequality, unemployment, poverty, and ensure rights deliver for marginalized communities.
Respond to the misuse of digital technologies and the shrinking space for civil society and dissent.
Address climate vulnerability, exploitation of critical minerals, governance challenges, and their human rights impacts.
A preliminary outline of the convening.
Click here for the full agendaSetting the scene: Southern Africa at a defining moment for human rights.
Constitutional traditions, liberation history, legal innovation and the gains achieved over four decades.
Responding to democratic deficits, inequality, cost-of-living crises, violence and shrinking civic space.
Digital technologies, climate vulnerability, critical minerals, and the changing global order.
Building resilient, preventive and protective human rights institutions and movements.
A shared vision for a future-fit human rights ecosystem that strengthens democratic resilience and advances equitable development.
The convening will take place in Gaborone, Botswana. Exact venue details will be shared with registered participants.
Key documents and materials for the convening. More resources will be added as they become available.