Regional Protective Network
Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network
Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network* was established to:
- help provide rapid responses to artists at risk in Africa,
- coordinate adequate support when artists and cultural professionals in Africa face danger because of their work, and,
- support regional safe havens in Africa.
Across the region, we are seeing a rise in restrictions on freedom of expression. As authoritarian regimes crackdown on dissent, artists and creatives are bearing the brunt of the pressure, finding themselves at risk of threats, harassment, arrest, imprisonment, torture, and even death because of their creative work.
While many organizations operate nationally, regionally, and internationally with mandates focused on artistic freedom and protecting artists at risk in Africa, a lack of clear communication between those organizations often causes assistance work to be duplicated and precludes artists from receiving adequate support in time.
What we do
Modeled off of the Journalists in Distress (JID) network, Amani brings together organizations from across Africa and the globe, helping to streamline communication, share expertise and insights, pool resources, monitor threats to artistic freedom and creative professionals, and coordinate more effective responses when assisting artists at risk. This will be achieved through the creation of a new communication mechanism that will allow like-minded member organizations to work in concert and more easily coordinate joint efforts when assisting artists at risk.
When an artist in distress contacts one organization in the Amani network, that organization will be able to contact the rest of the network via a pre-established secure channel in order to ask questions such as: Has anyone heard of this artist? Has anyone helped this artist already? What support can we offer this artist by pooling our resources?
How to get help
If you are an artist at risk, in Africa or elsewhere, please fill out our secure form here, which is available in English and French. You can also contact us via email at arc@pen.org. You will then be asked to provide information about your circumstances, which will be treated in confidence and shared only through end-to-end encrypted platforms. ARC will then facilitate the activation of the network in order to provide the best response based on your needs.
The partners
The current organizational members of the network include:
Africa Human Rights Network (AHRN) - AHRN facilitates, through various activities, the promotion, protection, and capacity building of human rights defenders and civil society organizations in Africa. To protect human rights defenders and artists at risk, AHRN has established two regional temporary relocation programs (shelter cities) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Cotonou, Benin. Until December 2019, the AHRN has offered a temporary shelter to more than 100 HRDs and artists. See AHRN's profile on ARC here.
Alert-Art-Afrik - Triple A is responsible for monitoring and highlighting African artists and other activists engaged in the defense of human rights. Our mission is also to support them in their activities through training and capacity building. Triple A's vision is to create a world where freedom of expression, human rights, and the protection of vulnerable minorities are respected by all.
Arterial Network - Arterial Network is a dynamic Pan-African, civil-society network of artists, cultural activists, entrepreneurs, enterprises, NGOs, institutions, and donors active in Africa’s creative and cultural sectors. Established as a member-based nonprofit organization, Arterial Network operates all across the continent in both English and French and is led by an elected steering committee that represents the five regions of the continent. Read more about Arterial network in ARC's profile here.
Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) safeguards the right to artistic freedom and works to ensure that artists everywhere can live and work without fear.
We strive to connect artists persecuted for their work to a global network of organizations that can support them.
Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy) is a regional, non-profit organization founded in 2003 that seeks to support artistic creativity in the Arab region and to encourage cultural exchange within the region and beyond. The work of Culture Resource is based on an appreciation of the value of the diverse cultural heritage within the Arab region, and a belief in the critical role of culture in the development of civil society, the importance of access to culture for all, and the rights of artists to freedom of expression. Their activities include support for independent artists to create new work and to travel and tour these works, capacity building and training programs and publications in Arabic aimed at developing cultural managers and organizations, cultural policy research, support for artists at risk, and supporting the sustainability of cultural industries in the region, without undermining the value of culture as a public good and a basic human right. See Al-Mawred profile on ARC here.
DefendDefenders - DefendDefenders protects human rights defenders in the African region, focusing its work on Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia (together with Somaliland), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The organization provides resources such as training, professional networks, temporary relocation, and regional assistance for various types of defenders (e.g., LGBTI and human rights) as well as an emergency hotline for human rights defenders. See DefendDefenders profile on ARC here.
Freemuse - Freemuse is an independent international membership organisation advocating for and defending artistic freedom of expression. It documents and monitors violations on artistic freedom globally, through original reporting, 24/7 media monitoring and via their extended network, culminating in an annual report, framing the worldwide landscape of violations against artists. See Freemuse's profile on ARC here.
PEN International - PEN International is one of the world's oldest NGOs, founded in 1921, and one of the first organizations to advocate for human rights internationally. With autonomous centers worldwide, PEN International works directly with those persecuted and harassed for expressing themselves, in order to shed light on human rights violations and advocate globally for meaningful safeguards to free expression.
PEN Uganda - PEN Uganda, a center of PEN International holds monthly literary meetings for members, has created school clubs and organized mentoring seminars in schools. Since 2015, the Centre has run an incredibly impactful project called 'Harnessing Rare Voices'; running creative writing workshops with prisoners. The Centre is also involved in promoting writing in local languages among writers since the government introduced expanded the teaching of local languages in schools, as well as doing public engagement and advocacy around the repeal of criminal defamation.
Protection International Africa (PIA) - Protection International Africa (PIA) is a regional organization that works toward increasing the agency of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) and contributing to the creation of safe spaces for HRDs to continue advocating for the promotion and protection of human rights. This objective is achieved through capacity building in physical & digital security; monitoring, documentation, and reporting of human rights violations; national, regional, and international advocacy; emergency response to human rights defenders at risk and network strengthening. See PIA's profile on ARC here.
Safe Havens - Freedom Talks (SH|FT) - The annual Safe Havens conference has its starting point in a human rights perspective and aims to be a meeting place for human rights defenders within the arts and academia as a way to make visible cultural operators. Freedom Talks is a streamed programming initiative “broadcasted” from different parts of the world and by/with organizations in the network; recently installments have included Freedom Talks@ArtsEquator and Freedom Talks@Uyghur PEN. All initiatives in the SH|FT concept are inclusive and as always serve the Safe Havens network, specifically prioritizing the artists and small NGO's worldwide. See SH|FT's profile on ARC here.
Southern Defenders - Established in February 2013, the Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN) is a regional alliance of human rights organizations from ten Southern African countries. SAHRDN's primary goal is to coordinate the protection and security of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the face of state-driven repression. The network strategically focuses on supporting the most vulnerable and marginalized HRDs, often in remote communities. Check SAHRDN's ARC profile for more details here.
Tanzania Artists Rights Organization (TARO) - The Tanzania Artists Rights Organization (TARO) is a non-governmental organization in the United Republic of Tanzania (East Africa). It deals with all matters pertaining to the rights and interests of artists in relation to their artistic works. TARO acts as a human rights defender for artists in Tanzania. The organization focuses on four major issues affecting the art industry such as restrictions on artistic freedom of expression, gender discrimination in the art industry, unprofessional artistic practices, and excessive violation of artists' rights which includes the degradation of their interests. See TARO's profile on ARC here.
* “Amani” means “peace” in Kiswahili, “strength” in Lhukonzo, and “hope” in Arabic. “Defence” is spelled in British English in accordance with common practice in Africa.