We, national and international civil society organisations, wish to express our deep concern regarding the arrest of human rights defenders in Niger by security forces on Sunday 25 March, and their detention ordered by the senior investigating judge in Niamey on Tuesday 27 March. We are also concerned about the detention of Nigerien human rights defenders following further arrests on the 15 April. As an official representative of your government, we call on you, and other diplomatic representatives in Niger, to strongly denounce this unprecedented repression of fundamental freedoms by the governing authorities. We call on you to uphold and protect democratic values, in line with those of your government, by condemning the erosion of the rule of law in Niger and intervening with the authorities to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all human rights defenders incarcerated in relation to peaceful protests. The arrests were made during peaceful protests against the 2018 Finance Law that was passed by the Nigerien Parliament in November 2017...On the 25 March, twenty-three people were arrested, some at the headquarters of civil society organisations, and others during the demonstration. Among the people arrested were Ali Idrissa Nani, Coordinator of ROTAB (Network of Organisations for Budgetary Transparency and Analysis) and Board member of Publish What You Pay...We urge you to remind the Nigerien authorities of their duty to respect fundamental freedoms and to demand that they drop all charges against the human rights defenders arrested on 25 March and 15 April, and to release them immediately without conditions. In addition, Nigerien authorities must be pressured to end their intimidation of dissenting voices, including through the use of judicial harassment. And they must restore a participatory environment, allowing civil society organisations to freely carry out legitimate activities in their pursuit of establishing human rights and promoting a transparent and responsible management of public finances to benefit the poorest populations.