1.    Africa Legal Aid ("AFLA") (Ghana, Netherlands, South Africa) – AFLA is a Pan-African international organization headquartered in Accra, Ghana that was registered and launched in Maastricht, Netherlands in 1995, to work for the respect and recognition of human rights through legal protection. AFLA’s mission is to counsel individuals and groups on human rights matters; to promote human rights awareness; to research human rights conditions in African countries; to publicize human rights violations; to pressurize States to comply with their human rights obligations; to analyse human rights legislation and treaties; and to contribute to the development of a human rights jurisprudence for Africa.

Website: www.afla.unimaas.nl

2.    The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) - is on a mission to create an enabling and just environment for those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. BONELA’s activities are aimed at ensuring that ethics, the law and human rights are made an essential part of the national response to fighting this pandemic in Botswana, which has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV prevalence.

Website: www.bonela.org

3.    Ditshwanelo (Botswana) – Ditshwanelo is an advocacy organization that plays a key role in promoting and protecting human rights in Botswana. The centre seeks to affirm human dignity and equality irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, social status, or political convictions. In pursuit of this mission, Ditshwanelo seeks to educate, research, counsel, and mediate on issues of human rights, with specific reference to the marginalized and disempowered.

Website: www.ditshwanelo.org.bw

4.    Interights (London, UK) – Interights’ Africa program supports the development of national and regional human rights processes and institutions in Africa. Interights’ three key objectives in Africa are: 1) to help regional human rights systems be more effective in tackling the continent’s continuing human rights problems; 2) to help national-level advocates, organizations and institutions better protect human rights domestically and through the use of international mechanisms; and 3) to develop a body of regional law and practice that will help to prevent future violations of human rights.

Website: www.interights.org

5.    Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (The Gambia) – The Institute’s mandate is to increase the effectiveness and accessibility of the human rights protection mechanisms of the African Union. Strives to promote awareness of human rights and development concerns in Africa and to create an environment conducive to the full realization of development and human security for all Africans through the effective implementation of the African human rights instruments. 

Website: www.africaninstitute.org

6.    Lawyers for Human Rights (Swaziland) – Lawyers for Human Rights - Swaziland was established in June 2000 to promote, foster and strengthen all human rights in the Kingdom; protect political and socio-economic rights as provided for in international treaties; uphold and promote the utilization of law as an instrument for the protection, promotion and enforcement of human rights; assist in the maintenance of the highest standard of the administration of justice; and to promote and facilitate a judicious Bill of Rights.

Website: n/a

7.    Legal Assistance Centre (Namibia) – The Legal Assistance Centre is a public interest law centre that is committed to creating a human rights culture and promoting access to justice in Namibia. The centre focuses primarily on constitutional and human rights cases likely to have a broad impact on Namibian society.

Website: www.lac.org.na

8.    Legal Mocambique Dos Direitos Humanos (Mozambique) – The organization’s mission is to promote human rights through advocacy, education, human rights monitoring, and lobbying, as well as legal assistance where there is an institutional vacuum.

Website: n/a

9.    Legal Resources Foundation (Zambia) – The Legal Resources Foundation of Zambia is a non-profit foundation, providing legal aid, promoting human rights and litigating in the public interest. It functions in areas that directly affect disadvantaged sectors of society in relation to violations of their fundamental rights and the enhancement of justice.

Website: www.lrf.org.zm

10.    Legal Resources Foundation (Zimbabwe) – The Legal Resources Foundation is one of the largest legal assistance/human rights organizations in Zimbabwe. The organization operates a Citizen’s Advice Bureau, which gives legal advice to indigent persons; conducts an extensive paralegal education program; runs a program on law enforcement for state officials, such as magistrates and police officers; and has a test case program. The Legal Resources Foundation also publishes material on a variety of issues and contributes regularly to debates on legislation and other matters of a public interest nature.

Website: www.lrf.co.zw

11.    Malawi Centre for Advice, Research and Education on Rights ("CARER") (Malawi) –CARER seeks to ensure that human rights become a reality to Malawians, especially the underprivileged in society, by working with them to ensure that they know, claim, and defend their rights. It seeks to provide education and legal assistance to the needy, to conduct research, and monitor human rights abuses.

Website: n/a

12.    The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) - is a non - governmental organisation with members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. Officially launched in Setpetember 1992, MISA focuses primarily on the need to promote free, independent and pluralistic media, as envisaged in the 1991 Windhoek Declaration. MISA seeks ways in which to promote the free flow of information and co - operation between media workers, as a principal menas of nurturing democracy and human rights in Africa.

Website: www.misa.org

13.    Open Society Justice Initiative (Abuja, Budapest, New York) – The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open Society Institute, pursues reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical assistance and the dissemination of knowledge to secure advances in five priority areas: national criminal justice, international justice, freedom of information and expression, equality and citizenship, and anticorruption.

Website: www.justiceinitiative.org

14.    Swaziland Positive living (SWAPOL) was founded in 2001 by five positive women after experiencing stigma and discrimination from their in-laws, families and community members.

Website: www.swapol.net 

15.    Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA) is a regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) that conducts research about women’s human rights in seven countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Website: www.wlsa.org

16.     Women’s Legal Centre (South Africa) – Established to advance women’s rights through constitutional litigation and advocacy on gender issues. Women’s Legal Centre litigates cases that advance women’s rights and produces briefs to assist courts in constitutional cases that concern women’s rights and gender equality.

Website: www.wlce.co.za

17.    Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group (Swaziland) – Yonge Nawe is a public interest membership-based NGO that campaigns on issues of environment and sustainable development. It seeks to prevent and reduce the impact of inappropriate environmental, natural resources and sustainable development practices in Swaziland.

Website: www.yongenawe.com

18.    Zambia AIDS Law Research and Advocacy Network (ZARAN) - is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has been actively doing research and advocacy in the areas of HIV and AIDS and Human Rights in Zambia for the past five years. Zambia has the fourth highest adult HIV prevalence in the world, making HIV an issue of paramount concern for all Zambians. In addition, Zambia has ratified the International Declaration of Human Rights, and as such is obliged protect the basic human rights of all Zambians, including people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). These two important facts intersect in a variety of ways that require civil society and its organisations to work to ensure that the rights of PLWHA are both understood and upheld.

Website: www.zaran.org

19.    Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (Zimbabwe) – Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights ("ZLHR") is a non-profit, membership human rights organization whose core objective is to foster a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe, as well as encourage the growth and strengthening of human rights at all levels of Zimbabwean society through observance of the rule of law. ZLHR is committed to upholding respect for the rule of law and the unimpeded administration of justice, free and fair elections, the free flow of information, and the protection of constitutional rights and freedoms in Zimbabwe and the surrounding region.

Website: www.zlhr.org.zw