Africa Human Rights Hub

Vision and Objectives

The Africa Human Rights Hub was launched in 2023 by the Politics and Urban Governance Research Group (PUG) at the the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. The Hub seeks to support African universities to play a significant role in protecting human rights, focusing on how universities can support ‘protection’, both externally (of civil society activists and democratic freedoms) and internally (of staff and students). The Hub seeks to act as both an ‘ideas lab’ and a conduit between human rights work and academia thus expanding the HRD protection ecosystem.

In many parts of Africa, shrinking civic and political space and democratic backsliding are threatening the freedom and autonomy of academics, students, and activists. Located within a university (UWC), the Africa Hub will provide an ideal space for the incubation of ideas and reflection on various political contexts by HRDs, students and academics. It will draw inspiration from UWC and other African universities’ rich history of protest and activism, including their roles in anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles. These universities also educate many of those who become key role players in the state and in civil society.

Ideas on Building an Africa Hub on Human Rights & Expansion of Political Space

In August 2023, PUG hosted a three-day symposium bringing together human rights defenders, academics and students to explore the role that universities can play as

  1. instigators of activism in defense of democratic space,

  2. incubators of values and ideas,

  3. collaborators and partners in applied pedagogies, and

  4. protectors of particular people (activist, scholars, refugees).

Different actors involved in protection work voiced strong support for the formation of an African Hub to support the role of the university as a space of protection for HRDs.

Africa Hub 2023 Report

The Africa Human Rights Hub’s first annual report includes reflections on the August 2023 symposium, an opinion piece on gender based violence on university campus, an overview of student placements and the proposed summer school, and a summary of research taking place on the support universities in Africa provide to persecuted human rights defenders.