Call for Applications: African Universities Hub for Human Rights Summer School

African Universities Hub for Human Rights Summer School 

Theme: “Rethinking Human Rights and Democracy from Africa”

28 September – 2 October 2026
University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

Apply now: https://forms.gle/89hKw82tDqDAEFSX6 

About the Summer School 

The Africa Hub’s 2026 Summer School for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) responds to a global moment in which human rights and democracy are increasingly contested in both meaning and practice. Across contexts, these concepts are invoked selectively and shaped by shifting economic and geopolitical interests, undermining their role as stable normative frameworks. At the same time, citizens are questioning their value, reflected in declining institutional trust and growing dissatisfaction with democratic systems across Africa. 

The Summer School is grounded in the proposition that this moment offers an opportunity to rethink human rights and democracy in Africa.

Human rights have become a contested political language, with scholars arguing that new frameworks are needed. In practice, rights are applied unevenly, often subordinated to security, economic priorities, and geopolitical competition. The international order grounded in human rights and democracy is under strain, further shaped by structural forces such as digital surveillance, data extraction, and extractive economic models that deepen inequality and environmental harm.

HRDs operate in increasingly precarious environments, facing repression, shrinking civic space, and shifting access to resources. Simultaneously, the concepts they defend are themselves contested, affecting their legitimacy, safety, and sustainability. This creates an urgent need for analytical frameworks to interpret changing contexts and understand how power, economic interests, and global dynamics shape risks and opportunities. At the same time, this moment opens space for Africa to shape new approaches to human rights and democracy. Supporting HRDs as thinkers and innovators is therefore both necessary and strategic.

The programme combines a decolonial perspective with political economy analysis, alongside futures-oriented approaches. This will equip participants with conceptual tools to interpret current dynamics and engage critically with possible futures. Participants will explore how power operates through economic systems, extraction, digital infrastructures, and geopolitics.

Objectives 

The objectives include:

• To equip Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) with tools to critically understand the current crises shaping human rights, democracy, and civic space.
• To strengthen participants’ practical and strategic capacity through critical engagement with theory and practical skills that enhance effectiveness, protection, and wellbeing. 
• To create space for reflection, knowledge exchange, and solidarity-building among HRDs across Africa.
• To support HRDs as thinkers and innovators in reimagining the future of human rights and democracy from Africa.

Call for applications will be open until Friday, 22 May 2026.

Apply now: https://forms.gle/89hKw82tDqDAEFSX6 

Please kindly note that submitting an application does not automatically confirm your participation; confirmation will follow separately by mid-June 2026.