Top Tweets for #SheDefends
A fortnight ago, we wrapped up our 7th #SheDefends campaign, and we’re still reflecting on its impact and deeply grateful to everyone who journeyed with us.
Held under the theme “Protecting Her Who Defends: Advancing Justice for WHRDs,” this year’s campaign sought to amplify the voices of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) while advocating for stronger, more accessible, and gender-responsive protection mechanisms.
Thank you to all our followers and networks who engaged with the campaign, liking, retweeting, reposting, sharing, and amplifying the voices of WHRDs across your networks. Your support helped extend these critical conversations far beyond our platforms.
To the WHRDs who courageously shared their stories, reflections, and experiences, thank you for your vulnerability, your strength, and for sparing the time, despite demanding circumstances, to be part of this campaign. Your voices are powerful, and they matter.
Through this campaign, we not only amplified voices but also highlighted the importance of engaging with regional and international legal frameworks (laws and policies). We hope it has encouraged more WHRDs to access and utilise these tools in their work.
Let’s continue to stand with WHRDs all year round, not just in March, supporting, protecting, and amplifying their work as they defend the rights of others.
#SheDefends
As we conclude this year’s #SheDefends campaign, we celebrate the powerful voices of women human rights defenders(WHRDs) across Africa. For seven years now, March has been dedicated to recognising and amplifying their vital contributions in advancing rights, justice, and equality.
While progress has been made, WHRDs continue to face significant legal and social barriers. Throughout this campaign, we took time to highlight how WHRDs can leverage regional and international mechanisms to advance justice, strengthen protection, and hold duty bearers accountable. Despite these frameworks, implementation gaps persist, and WHRDs remain at heightened risk.
Yet, their resilience and impact continue to drive change; defending communities, advancing justice, and pushing for these protections to be realised in practice. From all of us at DefendDefenders: we see you, we celebrate you, and we stand with you. Your courage inspires, and we are rooting for you throughout the year.
As we wrap up our #SheDefends campaign, we hosted @PrimahKwagala, Executive Director of the Women’s Pro Bono Initiative, on our first episode of Conversations with Defenders this year, The Case That Changed Me.
Primah reflects on three cases that have shaped her journey as a human rights lawyer.
Unable to choose just one, she shares the cases that profoundly changed her, and how they influenced her approach to justice, her sense of purpose, and her decision to venture into academia. One deeply personal case involved a Ugandan girl trafficked to the Middle East as a domestic worker.
Following a desperate plea from the girl’s mother, Primah and her team stepped in to support the family through a painful search for answers and closure.
Although the legal outcome was not what they had hoped for, the young woman was eventually brought home and laid to rest, offering some measure of peace to her family.
Through this and similar cases, Primah contemplates on her contribution to broader conversations on labour migration and the protection of domestic workers, as well as her work supporting the repatriation of Ugandan women trafficked abroad and standing with families navigating loss, exploitation, and injustice.
Watch the latest episode of Conversations with Defenders to hear more about the cases that shaped Primah Kwagala’s journey as a woman human rights defender using this link; https://t.co/xHbTv5hW66
Jaqueline Mutere took a moment during our #SheDefends campaign to reflect on her journey as a woman human rights defender. As a survivor of sexual violence following Kenya’s 2007/2008 post-election violence, her experience led her to establish @Grace_Agenda , initially focused on supporting children born of rape and later expanding to address the needs of their mothers, while advancing advocacy for reparations.
In her intimate audio letter to her younger self, Jaqueline reflects on a journey that is not linear, shaped by patience, persistence, and the need to use national and regional frameworks, even when justice takes time. She reminds herself to walk alongside others, take one step at a time, and hold onto the impact of her work in bringing light, hope, and dignity to others. Above all, she emphasises the importance of rest when the journey becomes heavy.
Take a few minutes to listen to Jaqueline’s audio letter; it may hold a nugget of wisdom for your own journey as a woman human rights defender, or for one you know.
As we continue our #SheDefends campaign this week, we are taking time to highlight regional and international human rights mechanisms and legal frameworks designed to support and protect women’s rights, as well as the women human rights defenders working to advance them.
Take some time to watch our Senior Programs Officer, Walda Keza Shaka, as she explains how to engage with the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa.
In this video, she elaborates how these mechanisms can be used by women human rights defenders in practice to advance justice and strengthen their protection.
#SheDefends
Let’s recap yesterday’s X Space #SheDefends conversation on advancing justice for women human rights defenders (WHRDs).
Our Director of Programs and Administration, @MemoryBandera, opened the discussion by reflecting on her experience engaging with women human rights defenders(WHRDs) across the region. She highlighted how many WHRDs, especially those working in rural communities, often carry out critical work under immense pressure, sometimes without knowing that regional and international protection mechanisms exist to support them.
Through the story of a rural WHRD documenting land rights violations, Memory emphasised an important point: legal frameworks like the Maputo Protocol and the African Commission Human and Peoples’ Rights can only make a difference if WHRDs know about them and feel able to access them.
Defending the rights of others is no easy task. Your personal skills and knowledge of regional and international mechanisms are your source of strength to make a positive change in your community.
#SheDefends
#SheDefends https://t.co/xf9lnQUmPR
As we wrap up week two of our #SheDefends campaign, we look forward to our X Space discussion this afternoon on advancing justice for women human rights defenders (WHRDs) who defend the rights of others.
Join the conversation using the link below: https://t.co/fQWn9sc7ta
#SheDefends
We are in week two of our #SheDefends campaign! As part of our ongoing conversation on advancing justice for WHRDs defending the rights of others, join us this Friday, 13 March 2026, for a special X Space discussion moderated by our Director of Programs and Administration, @MemoryBandera.
Together, we’ll explore:
1. Legal and social barriers to justice for WHRDs
2. Effectiveness of regional and international legal frameworks(laws and policies)
3. Recommendations to strengthen protection and access to justice
📅 Date: Friday, 13 March 2026
⏰ Time: 1:30 – 3:00 PM East African Time (EAT)
Be part of the conversation and together let us advance justice and protection for WHRDs!
Also joining the discussion is Nathan Chumba, a human rights defender from Kenya and a champion for the rights of women and girls.
#SheDefends
We are delighted to have Rose Wakikona, a feminist lawyer and also the Deputy Executive Director at the Women’s Probono Initiative, with experience in public interest litigation and women’s rights advocacy.
#SheDefends
Mery is an Ethiopian lawyer engaged in advancing legal empowerment and access to justice for women.
#SheDefends
Meet our panellists for the upcoming #SheDefends X Space.
First up is Britney Ngube, is a Cameroonian woman human rights defender working on legal and advocacy issues related to women’s rights.
We are in week two of our #SheDefends campaign! As part of our ongoing conversation on advancing justice for WHRDs defending the rights of others, join us this Friday, 13 March 2026, for a special X Space discussion moderated by our Director of Programs and Administration, @MemoryBandera.
Together, we’ll explore:
1. Legal and social barriers to justice for WHRDs
2. Effectiveness of regional and international legal frameworks(laws and policies)
3. Recommendations to strengthen protection and access to justice
📅 Date: Friday, 13 March 2026
⏰ Time: 1:30 – 3:00 PM East African Time (EAT)
Be part of the conversation and together let us advance justice and protection for WHRDs!
Take a moment to answer this poll and let us know how familiar you are with these frameworks.
#SheDefends
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