What Do We Mean by Solidarity — and Why Does It Matter?

A grounding piece on the meaning of solidarity, its relationship to human rights, and why it is indispensable for protecting those who face the greatest risks.

Solidarity is a principle of action — a commitment to stand with others, share burdens, and build collective capacity to confront injustice. At Solidarity Network AFRICA, this principle sits at the heart of everything we do.

But what does solidarity actually mean, and how does it connect to human rights? These are not abstract questions. For the human rights defender threatened for speaking truth to power, for the survivor of abuse seeking recognition and support, for the family displaced by political violence — the gap between solidarity as a slogan and solidarity as a practice can be the difference between protection and abandonment.

This article sets out how we understand solidarity, why we believe it belongs at the centre of human rights work, and what it means in practice for those we exist to serve.

Solidarity as a Principle of Mutual Obligation

At its core, solidarity refers to a relationship of mutual support and shared responsibility among the members of a community. It is not charity — a gift flowing in one direction from the powerful to the powerless. It is a reciprocal bond: a recognition that we are bound together, that the vulnerability of one is a concern for all, and that collective action is necessary to address collective problems.

This understanding has deep roots across political and philosophical traditions in Africa and beyond. Ubuntu — the southern African philosophy that holds “I am because we are”— expresses precisely this: personhood, dignity and flourishing are not achieved alone, but through relationship, community and mutual care.

ON SOLIDARITY
“Solidarity is not a goal in and of itself, but rather an instrument to realize each entity’s respective human rights — it is about the duty to cooperate to achieve human rights globally.”

Solidarity also implies obligation. Where human rights establish what each person is entitled to as a matter of law and dignity, solidarity asks: what do we owe each other in making those entitlements real? It converts the abstract promise of rights into the concrete practice of protection, accompaniment and collective advocacy.

Why Solidarity and Human Rights Belong Together

Human rights and solidarity come from different traditions, and the tension between them is real. Human rights are fundamentally about the individual: they protect each person’s dignity against the state and against abuse, regardless of community membership, identity or status. Solidarity, by contrast, is relational — it depends on community, on shared purpose, on a sense of mutual belonging.

These differences matter. A solidarity that is not grounded in human rights risks becoming exclusionary — protecting “our people” at the expense of others, or demanding conformity as the price of belonging. A human rights framework that ignores solidarity risks becoming procedural — focused on legal obligations while failing to build the collective capacity needed to confront systemic injustice.

The answer is not to choose between them, but to hold both together. When solidarity is informed by human rights, it becomes inclusive and accountable — extending protection to the most marginalised, and refusing to trade individual dignity for collective goals. When human rights are informed by solidarity, they gain muscle — connecting formal guarantees to the structural and institutional change needed to make rights real.

Why This Matters for Human Rights Defenders

Human rights defenders — lawyers, journalists, community organisers, activists, women speaking out against gender-based violence — occupy a uniquely exposed position. They confront power directly. They document what power prefers to remain invisible. They give voice to those whose voices are being suppressed. And because of this, they face threats, harassment, arrest, enforced disappearance and violence.

In Zimbabwe, as across the SADC region, the risks facing defenders are acute. Civic space has contracted. Defenders operate in environments where the law is sometimes weaponised against them, where impunity for those who threaten them is common, and where the personal costs of speaking out are high.

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Solidarity is the infrastructure of protection.

When a defender is isolated, they are vulnerable. When they are connected — to peer networks, to legal support, to organisations that will speak publicly on their behalf — their risk decreases and their resilience grows. Solidarity is not supplementary to protection; it is protection.

Solidarity with defenders means more than expressing concern. It means rapid response when a defender is at risk. It means legal accompaniment, psychosocial support, and public advocacy. It means building the networks and systems that ensure no defender faces the consequences of their work alone. It means treating the protection of defenders as a collective obligation — not the concern of one sympathetic organisation, but of a whole community of conscience.

Why This Matters for Victims of Abuse

For survivors and victims of human rights violations, solidarity takes a different but equally essential form. The experience of abuse is often compounded by silence, denial and institutional failure. Victims are told that what happened to them did not happen, or that it was not serious, or that there is no remedy available. They face secondary harm in processes designed to deliver justice. They are left without the material support needed to rebuild their lives.

A solidarity-based approach to victim support insists on several things. First, that victims are not passive recipients of assistance — they are rights-holders, whose dignity and agency must be respected at every stage. Second, that support must be holistic — addressing not only legal needs but psychological, economic and social ones. Third, that victims must not be required to be exceptional to deserve support: the experience of violation is itself sufficient grounds for solidarity and care.

Solidarity with victims also has a political dimension. It means refusing to let abuses remain invisible. It means building the evidence base that holds perpetrators accountable. It means advocating for systemic change so that the conditions producing abuse are addressed, not only their immediate consequences. In this sense, solidarity with victims is inseparable from advocacy — they reinforce each other.

Solidarity Across Levels: Local, National, Regional

One of the most important insights in contemporary thinking about solidarity is that it operates at multiple levels simultaneously — and that these levels must complement, not compete with, each other.

At the local level, solidarity is the networks of trust and mutual support that sustain communities under pressure. At the national level, it is the institutions, coalitions and civil society organisations that aggregate individual cases into systemic change. At the regional level — across the SADC — it is the shared commitment of organisations and states to uphold the rights of all people in the region, regardless of which side of a border they live on.

This is the architecture within which Solidarity Network Zimbabwe operates. We are rooted in Zimbabwe, building national capacity and responding to national needs. But we situate our work within a broader regional vision — one in which the solidarity we build at home contributes to a stronger regional human rights infrastructure, and in which the momentum of regional progress reinforces our national work.

Our Commitment

Solidarity Network exists because rights, unaccompanied by solidarity, are often unrealised. We are committed to building the networks, systems and relationships that translate the promise of human rights into lived protection — for defenders who risk everything to speak truth, and for victims whose voices deserve to be heard, believed and acted upon.