As voters prepare to go to the polls in Benin, candidates running in the country’s legislative and municipal elections on 11 January 2026, and presidential election on 12 April 2026, must commit to prioritizing human rights, Amnesty International and 13 civil society organizations said. The organizations have published a manifesto setting out key human rights priorities for the incoming authorities.
“Civic space continues to shrink in Benin with a wave of attacks on independent media outlets and people still being arbitrarily arrested and detained for dissent. Despite progress, women and marginalized groups face discrimination, while forced evictions jeopardize the human rights of thousands of people. The right to a fair trial and access to justice are some of the issues the incoming authorities must urgently address,” said Dieudonné Dagbéto, Executive Director of Amnesty International Benin.
Protect freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly
Several newspapers and websites in Benin have been suspended under the Digital Code, which criminalizes the ‘publication of false information’ and ‘harassment through electronic communications’. It is essential to revise this Code in alignment with international human rights standards, and the recommendations accepted by the authorities during the last Universal Periodic Review.
The authorities continue to disproportionately restrict the right to protest. They must guarantee the right to freedom of peaceful assembly by revising the criminal Code which currently prohibits “any unarmed gathering that could disturb public peace”, allowing for peaceful protests to be banned on vague grounds.
In recent years, security forces have dispersed peaceful protests with excessive force and arbitrarily arrested individuals. Prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations must be conducted into every alleged case of excessive use of force, and those arbitrarily detained must be released.
The relatives of those allegedly killed by security forced during protests in 2019 are still waiting for justice. We call for the revision of the 2019 amnesty law to ensure their access to justice and remedy.
More humane prison conditions
Despite efforts from the authorities, prisoners still sleep in overcrowded cells. To combat prison overcrowding, pretrial detention should be used as a last resort, and judicial proceedings should be expedited. Laws and decrees offering alternatives to imprisonment for minor offences should be enforced. It is also essential to improve prisoners’ access to drinking water and sanitation, as well as healthcare, including adequate facilities and qualified medical staff, and to investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.
Better access to justice
Opposition political figures continue to be arbitrarily detained, as confirmed by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. There must be an end to arbitrary detention and all persons detained without legal grounds or in violation of human rights must be released. The effective implementation of legal aid would be a major step forward. The jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to receive complaints directly from individuals and NGOs must also be restored.
Promoting gender equality and protecting the most marginalized
Women remain underrepresented in political decision-making bodies, parliament, and senior management positions. Urgent measures are needed to increase women’s representation and achieve gender equality.
In 2024, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities deemed access to health and education services for persons with disabilities to be insufficient. The manifesto calls for the training and recruitment of teachers in sign language and other media, as well as the creation of centres for children with intellectual disabilities and support for private centres.
Due to the spillover of the conflict affecting the Central Sahel, attacks by armed groups in the north of Benin resulted in 27,294 internally displaced persons and 30,540 refugees and asylum seekers as of November 2025, according to the UNHCR. Most of them, deprived of their land and livestock, have difficulty accessing basic services. The incoming authorities must respect international obligations to protect refugees and displaced persons, and coordinate humanitarian assistance effectively.
Since 2021, development projects have resulted in thousands of people being forcibly evicted, many of them without prior and fair compensation. Elected authorities must ensure fair compensation and adequate and safe rehousing solutions for all victims of forced evictions.
Despite a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling, women were kept locked up in the Mènontin district hospital in 2023 for non-payment of medical fees. While recognizing that the authorities have corrected this situation, the manifesto calls for effective access to maternity care and essential health services and for an end to the illegal practice of detaining patients.
In 2018, the right to strike was reduced to 10 days per year for almost all public and private sector employees, with a total ban in the health sector. In 2022, this ban was extended to other categories of workers. We call for the revision of the 2018 and 2022 laws to guarantee the right to strike, and to apply restrictions only to essential services.
“Our recommendations are not exhaustive, but they provide a roadmap for strengthening respect for human rights. We call on all political parties and candidates to commit to this,” said Dieudonné Dagbéto.
Signatories:
Amnesty International
Association des Blogueurs du Bénin
Association des Jeunes Juristes du Bénin
Association des Jeunes Juristes Diplomates et Politistes du Bénin (AJJuDIP Bénin)
Centre de formation en mécanisme de protection des droits humains
Coalition des défenseurs des droits humains (CDDH) Bénin
Commission béninoise des droits de l’Homme
Human Rights Priority
Internet society (ISOC) – Bénin
Social Watch Bénin (SWB)
Union des Scolaires et Étudiants du Bénin
Union nationale des médias en ligne (UNAMEL)
Voix et actions citoyennes
Wanep – Bénin
