Latest News

An inside look into how we launched our work in The Gambia

Our Director of Growth Matteo Cassini how we launched our work in a new country, with new partners, during a pandemic.

The transformational power of legal education in prison.

Our law degree programme is trailblazing. Education Leads Milly and Brenda explain how we’re unlocking talent and educating a new, unlikely generation of justice defenders.

A break in the clouds: silver linings from 2021

Justice Defenders Founder and CEO Alexander McLean reflects on the successes from our year. He shines a light on how the team inside and outside of prison have overcome adversity through bravery, humility and solidarity. 

Carol Service 2021

A virtual Christmas celebration with our communities in Uganda, Kenya, The Gambia, UK and USA. Watch the service below. Then learn how you can help us expand to respond to the global awakening for justice.

Celebrating Black academic excellence

This month, as we celebrate with our 28 University of London students who have recently received their exam results, it gives us pause to reflect.

Our manifesto: responding to the grassroots need for justice in the US and beyond

As we respond to the mandate of the people, we remain grounded by our values of solidarity, humility, and bravery. To navigate the immense opportunities to scale our work, we are listening deeply to the grassroots need.

Voices from our paralegals: “Justice means to me…”

Ahead of World Day for International Justice on Saturday 17 July 2021, we asked our trained paralegals in prisons across Kenya and Uganda what justice means to them.‍

An update on our work during Covid-19

With Covid-19 cases on the rise in East Africa, Justice Defenders Country Directors Karen Saidi and Miriam Wachira provide an insight into how our work has been affected.

Justice Defenders' students are shortlisted in the Nelson Mandela Moot Court Competition

Having successfully progressed to the next round, Justice Defenders’ students will compete against teams from across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Catching up with paralegals in The Gambia one year on.

Hear from three of our paralegals in The Gambia, as we celebrate a year of our work in the country.

The unlikely activists. Reforming the criminal justice system from behind prison bars.

Success as Justice Defenders paralegals secure rights for suspects with mental disabilities.

Fighting for the rights of mothers with postpartum depression.

Rose, like many mothers across the world, experienced depression. With a lack of medical care, she was treated unfairly by the law. Thanks to our work, she is reunited with her daughter.

From death row to presidential palaces. One woman’s incredible fight for justice.

Having graduated with a law degree while incarcerated, Susan now travels the world campaigning against the death sentence.

Punitive sentencing for petty offences; vestiges of colonial times.

In East Africa young people are persistently caught up in drug trafficking, loitering and pickpocketing charges, resulting in long periods in prison. Here Draconian laws still apply, yet to be reviewed for the 21st Century. So laws often criminalise and marginalise the people with least in society.

“My 13-year imprisonment was a setup. They never wanted us to get married.”

Despite having the paperwork to prove Emily’s age and his innocence, Simon was convicted of aggravated defilement. No court would hear his appeal, so Simon spent 13 years in prison for a crime he, and Emily, says he didn’t commit. 

The law: Enforcing it, breaking it, studying it. One man's journey

When he used to work as a police officer, Gilbert would take people to prison with little thought about fair trials or sentencing. Until he found himself in conflict with the law he once administered. 

What's the impact of a university degree, if you still have many years left in prison?

Degrees mean extra responsibilities. Four students and graduates in Kenya and Uganda have been promoted to the highly trusted position of 'trusteeship'.

Reconciliation of self and community

Amateur chef Pepe Ivan Matovu recalls how he found hope, healing and restoration in one of Uganda’s most populous prisons.