MISA Regional welcomes the adoption of Resolution ACHPR/Res.657(LXXXVI) 2026 on Access to Information and the Right to a Healthy Environment by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
The ACHPR adopted the Resolution during its 86th Ordinary Session held from 23 February to 9 March 2026.
The Resolution reaffirms the inseparable link between access to information, environmental rights, and the broader framework of human rights protections enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
It urges African Union member States to safeguard environmental information and those who champion it.
It recognises that access to information, public participation, and a healthy environment are interconnected and vital for sustainable development and climate action across the continent.
The Resolution further urges States to investigate and address attacks against journalists documenting environmental and climate degradation, and explicitly recognises the threats they encounter while carrying out their work.
Key Provisions
The Resolution emphasises several core principles in line with MISA’s mandate throughout the Southern African region.
- Proactive Disclosure: States are encouraged to ensure timely, accurate, accessible, and proactive sharing of climate and environmental information.
- Protection of Journalists and Defenders: The Commission urges States to prevent, investigate, and address acts of harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest, detention, and reprisals against journalists and environmental human rights defenders arising from their efforts to seek, receive, and communicate information on environmental harm, climate impacts, and natural resource exploitation.
- Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs): The resolution explicitly addresses the abuse of court processes by powerful individuals or organisations to silence critics, urging States to adopt legislative, administrative, and judicial measures to prevent vexatious litigation that deters public participation in environmental issues.
- Environmental Disinformation: The Commission recognises the widespread issue of climate and environmental disinformation and misinformation, highlighting that these problems threaten information integrity, transparency, and accountability.
- Ensure Corporate Accountability: Urges States to require business enterprises, especially in extractive, energy, and agribusiness sectors, to carry out transparent human rights and environmental due diligence, and to ensure meaningful community participation.
Significance for Southern Africa
For Southern Africa, a region rich in natural resources and heavily dependent on extractive industries, agriculture, and energy production, this resolution offers a vital framework for addressing these challenges.
Countries across the region, including Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, face ongoing challenges at the intersection of environmental governance, access to information, and the protection of journalists and civil society actors documenting environmental harm.
The Resolution acts as a vital instrument for civil society, journalists, and affected communities to call for transparency and accountability from both governments and corporations.
Call to Action for Southern African States
- Protect journalists and environmental defenders: States must prevent and respond to harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests, and reprisals against those documenting environmental damage. Measures to prevent strategic lawsuits intended to silence public participation should also be introduced.
- Ensure proactive disclosure of environmental information: States must adopt and implement legislation that guarantees access to information, ensuring the proactive sharing of climate and environmental data, along with meaningful public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.
- Mandate corporate due diligence: States must require business enterprises in extractive, energy, agribusiness, and infrastructure sectors to perform human rights and environmental due diligence, ensuring transparency and accountability in their operations.
Conclusion
MISA urges African States to fully implement the Resolution’s recommendations.
This can be achieved through implementing sustainable measures that protect climate and environmental journalism by investigating and addressing harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests, detention, and reprisals against journalists and human rights defenders.
As the continent grapples with the climate crisis, African States must recognise that access to environmental information and safeguarding those who report on it are essential for ensuring accountability for environmental harms and fostering meaningful responses to the climate crisis.
MISA Regional Communique
