The changing global human rights landscape: A challenge to the African Union (AU) -European Union (EU) partnership
A briefing by European and African civil society
17 November 2025
In September-October 2025, ahead of the AU-EU human rights dialogue on 7 October, twenty civil society experts convened to discuss the current far-reaching and unprecedented changes taking place in the global human rights landscape and what meaningful actions the two institutions, their member states and their partnership can take to effectively promote and protect human rights in this context.
Our organizations acknowledge the importance of the EU-AU human rights dialogue as an essential space for civil society working on democracy and human rights on both continents as well as the potential of the AU-EU partnership to positively shape national human rights agendas, policies and practices in Europe and in Africa.
As the EU and AU meets for a summit on 24-25 November, civil society space is shrinking and under attack by states on both continents, even as related challenges proliferate, from rising authoritarian practices to conflict and insecurity to new digital opportunities and risks.
Our organizations notice worrying trends in both regions in terms of the policing of protests and criminalization of activism and status, showing a disjunction between law and practice. Governments increasingly treat assemblies as security problems rather than civic expression, deploying heavy-handed tactics and modernized less-lethal technologies that inflict severe harm. Despite regional courts finding such practices unconstitutional or amounting to torture, domestic investigations are rarely initiated and where initiated, there is outright contempt of court decisions. The effect is twofold: victims go without remedies, and a chilling effect deters future civic participation. The conflation of contemporary human rights violations with past abuses that remain unaddressed underscores the need for accountability and credible transitional justice processes to combat impunity, provide reparations to victims and guarantee the non-recurrence of violations.
Transnational repression of civil society and rights defenders is also on the rise and documented in both Europe and Africa.
Funding cuts have amplified the impact of authoritarian practices and the shutdown of civic space, including protests, elections and other political processes, especially during conflict situations, where the delivery of humanitarian aid is profoundly impacted.
In many areas, the very definition of human rights action is being questioned, and human rights itself risks being redefined altogether. Recent changes to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Guidelines are just one example of these fundamental shifts.
In our joint and non-attribute briefing issued today, based on civil society exchanges ahead of the AU-EU human rights dialogue on 7 October, European and African civil society shares findings and recommendations in response to several significant global challenges we are currently witnessing on human rights, encouraging the EU, AU, their member states and the EU-AU partnership to take action in policy and practice:
- Cuts in funding support to civil society organizations and international and regional human rights institutions, which work to safeguard against increasing human rights violations and shrinking civic space
- Misinformation and disinformation about civil society and its work
- The active undermining of norms and institutions including international human rights law commitments; and
- Authoritarian practices on both continents.
