Amel for Human Rights and Justice
Kampala, Uganda · est. 2024
Amel ("hope") is a civil society organization working on peacebuilding, justice, and human rights in Uganda and Sudan. We document rights violations, provide legal support, lead community dialogue, and build the capacity of the people most affected by conflict and displacement. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Kampala, Amel is led jointly by women and youth, grounded in the belief that lasting peace is built from the communities up.
Amel for Human Rights and Justice is headquartered in Kampala, Uganda, with an active network of members and volunteers across Sudan. We were established to respond to urgent human rights challenges, promote justice, and support communities affected by conflict and displacement.
Our work brings together human rights documentation, legal support, advocacy, and community-based dialogue — not as separate programs, but as connected parts of a single mission: helping communities move from vulnerability toward protection, accountability, and self-determined change. We are a registered non-profit organization, operating in accordance with national and international human rights standards, and working in collaboration with civil society, regional, and international partners.
A just, peaceful, and inclusive society where human rights are respected, human dignity is protected, and women and youth are empowered to actively shape their communities and their future.
To protect and promote human rights and justice by empowering women and youth to take leadership roles, documenting human rights violations and producing actionable research, advocating for peace, accountability, and social justice, and providing legal support and capacity-building initiatives to vulnerable groups.
Justice · Transparency · Accountability · Integrity · Neutrality · Credibility · Equality · Human Dignity · Participation
We work across eight interconnected areas — from human rights monitoring and legal support to research, advocacy, capacity building, and policy reform — using evidence and community voice to move from documentation to real accountability and protection.
We work on peacebuilding, justice, and human rights — including documentation, advocacy, dialogue, and protection from violence — as connected parts of one mission, not separate programs.
We monitor and document human rights violations to build a credible, evidence-based record, and provide legal advice and support so affected communities can understand and access the protections available to them.
We lead campaigns and facilitate community dialogue that brings people together across lines of difference — building social cohesion and pushing for accountability at both community and policy levels.
We deliver workshops, training, and applied research that strengthen leadership, particularly among women and youth, ensuring our advocacy is grounded in evidence rather than assumption.
Our three pillars above are delivered through eight interconnected areas of work.
Recording and verifying rights violations to build a credible evidentiary record.
Producing applied research that grounds our advocacy in evidence.
Campaigning for peace, accountability, and social justice.
Workshops and training that strengthen leadership, particularly among women and youth.
Providing legal advice and support to communities affected by rights violations.
Working alongside civil society, regional, and international partners.
Sharing our documentation and advocacy with the communities and audiences that need it.
Engaging in transitional justice processes and advocacy for lasting policy change.
Our headquarters and direct programming in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement, working alongside both refugee and host communities.
Community-based programming and dialogue supporting communities affected by conflict and displacement, delivered through our network of members and volunteers.
We are open to working anywhere resources allow, beyond these locations.
Numbers alone don't capture what this work looks like on the ground: a legal advocate walking a survivor through their options; a room of women and young people from different backgrounds sitting down to talk through what safety means in their community; a documented case that becomes part of a larger record of accountability. This is the kind of change that doesn't always make headlines, but adds up to something real.
Conflict and displacement in Uganda and Sudan leave women, youth, and entire communities exposed to rights violations, with limited access to justice, protection, or a voice in decisions that affect their lives. Without documentation, violations go unrecorded and unaddressed. Without legal support, survivors and affected communities have nowhere to turn. Without dialogue, mistrust and division are left to grow unchallenged.
Amel exists to close these gaps — not by working for communities, but by working with them: building the evidence, the legal pathways, and the local leadership needed for accountability and protection to become real, not aspirational.
Amel is a civil society organization, led jointly by women and youth. We work with everyone: women, youth, and the wider community.
Our leadership brings together women and youth in shared decision-making, reflecting the communities we serve rather than sitting apart from them. As a registered non-profit, we are accountable to our members, the communities we work with, and our partners — and we are committed to the safeguarding of everyone we work with, particularly children and other vulnerable groups.
This shared leadership extends beyond Kampala: our network of members and volunteers across Sudan carries the same decision-making model into the communities they serve, so that leadership stays close to the people most affected by our work rather than centralized in one office.
This way of working is grounded in our core values — transparency, accountability, integrity, and participation — which shape not just what we advocate for, but how decisions inside Amel are made.
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