Human Rights Defenders Summer School
The Annual Human Rights Defenders Summer School comprises civic activists and scholars from different parts of Africa. The school facilitates learning, networking, and identifying future research areas.
About the Summer School
The Africa Hub hosts an annual summer school for HRDs, comprising a diverse group of scholars, students, and activists selected from across Africa. The school serves as a capacity-building, networking, and protective space. HRDs face various skills and knowledge gaps that negatively impact their effectiveness, such as resource mobilisation, grant writing and reporting, tools for maintaining psychosocial well-being and overcoming burnout and trauma, and using the law to advocate for human rights, as well as skills in public speaking and building effective, sustainable movements.
The summer school creates a space for defenders of human rights and democracy to reflect, learn, share knowledge and network. Through lectures, facilitated discussions and various tasks, it equips participants with knowledge and skills to enhance their effectiveness in defending human rights and democracy. The school is structured around multiple conceptual themes but also focuses on leadership development and reflection on psychosocial support for HRDs and academics in this field. In line with the Africa Hub’s pedagogical approach, the school employs innovative storytelling and design thinking methods of learning and teaching. It draws facilitators from across UWC and its networks in academia and civil society.
The summer school supports HRDs by providing a supportive space for learning, connecting, building resilience to overcome challenges and increasing their effectiveness.
Human Rights Defenders Summer School
2025 Human Rights Defenders Summer School: Sustainability, Innovation and the Future of Defending Human Rights in Africa
The Summer School comes at a time of continued persecution of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), geopolitical shifts, and uncertainty regarding the sustainability of human rights and democratic struggles. Through the Summer School, AUH aims to develop HRDs’ skills and knowledge and increase their effectiveness in these uncertain times. The Summer School will be held under the theme: “Sustainability, Innovation and the Future of Human Rights in Africa”.
HRDs need to share experiences and acquire the skills to respond to the current democratic crisis. This year’s focus will be on sustainability and innovation in terms of defending human rights and protecting HRDs, leadership in times of crisis, use of digital tools for effectiveness and wellbeing, storytelling as a tool for defending human rights, developing strong networks for solidarity and support, and HRDs’ wellbeing.
The 2025 Summer School will bring together HRDs including student activists, human rights practitioners, and scholars from around Africa to share knowledge and skills, drawing on both theory and practice. The Summer School aims to build capacity, provide psycho-social support and networking for participants. Facilitators will come from within UWC and externally to create a well-rounded program, representative of different contexts and expertise. Furthermore, the participants will not only be engaging in learning, but also in the collective sharing of their own experiences emanating from their own work within the human rights space – thus teaching while they learn.
Objectives
- Create a space for defenders of human rights and democracy to reflect, learn, share knowledge and network to expand and strengthen the protection ecosystem.
- Enhance participants’ knowledge and skills for increased effectiveness in the work of defending human rights and democracy.
- Explore areas and methods of collaboration and cooperation between civil society and universities to advance human rights and democracy in Africa.
2024 Human Rights Defenders Summer School: Recentring Human Rights Protection and Expanding Democratic Space
In October, the Africa Hub will host its first week-long, annual Summer School at UWC for Human Rights Defenders working in different parts of the African continent. The School will bring together civic activists and academics who defend human rights and democracy across the African continent (HRDs) to share knowledge and skills and network under the theme: “Recentring Human Rights Protection and Expanding Democratic Space: Innovation and Sustainability, beyond the Present”. It will include multiple interdisciplinary sub-themes but mainly focus on leadership development, universities’ role in protecting human rights defenders, and reflections on psycho-social support for HRDs and academics in this field. Experts from various fields will lead mini-workshops, panel discussions and lectures during the School. The Hub received a huge response from HRDs across Africa, underlining the need for such a program.
Aims and Objectives
- Create a space for defenders of human rights and democracy to reflect, learn, share knowledge and network to expand and strengthen the protection ecosystem.
- Enhance participants’ human rights knowledge and skills to increase effectiveness.
- Explore areas and methods of collaboration and cooperation between civil society and universities to advance human rights and democracy in Africa.
Who should apply: Activists in and outside African universities, working in different areas such as land and environmental rights, protecting democratic space, women’s rights, disability rights, indigenous rights, LGBTIQ+ rights, education rights etc. We encourage those working outside major cities and/or have had limited opportunities to participate in capacity building programs to apply.
Details of support: All participants will be offered accommodation and local transport for purposes of participating in the Summer School. AUH will also offer a limited number of bursaries to cover economy return tickets to Cape Town, South Africa.
Photographic Reports
2025 Summer School
The theme for 2025 focused on “Sustainability, Innovation and the Future of Defending Human Rights in Africa”. Click on download to read the photo essay for the 2025 Summer School.
2024 Summer School
The theme for 2024 focused on “Recentering Human Rights protection: Innovation and Sustainability, beyond the present”. Click on download to read the photo essay for the 2024 Summer School.
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