A series of interviews of human rights defenders from Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa is being released today by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in a context of increasing harassment and obstacles to civil society activities on the African continent.

Human rights defenders from Algeria, the Gambia and Guinea, interviewed on the occasion of the publication of the 2011 Annual Report of the Obseravory in the framework of the 50th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), report the main restrictions on the freedom of action of human rights non-governmental organisations in their respective countries.

Other interviews relate the obstacles faced by defenders of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgenders (LGBT - Burundi, Uganda) or by lawyers involved in defending sexual minorities (Nigeria).