Latest News

Six factors you need to deliver justice

Through exploring our work, Former Commissioner with the UK’s aid watchdog Diana Good identifies the principles needed to deliver justice.

2020 Virtual Carol Service

In 2020, we celebrated our annual carol service virtually with our communities in Uganda, Kenya, the U.S., and UK.

12 days, 12 prison communities.

Prisons are mostly hidden places, unseen and rarely talked about. So we want to take you inside 12 of the prison communities where our defenders live and work. When you look into these prisons, you will see stark realities. But also resilience, courage, and untapped potential. Like leadership skills in the prison staff room. And determination on death row. Our hope is for a world where each of us is equally accountable to and protected by the law.

A chapter of progress, despite the pain.

In a world that seems more connected and divided than ever before, our defenders are using this unique chapter in history to keep the wheels of justice turning.

Black Lives Matter: the role of Justice Defenders in advancing racial equality

Reflections from our founder on our work, the ethos of BLM, and our global reckoning of the costs of racial inequality.

Covid-19 response: a three-part plan

Our response to the pandemic will be three-fold: a fines fund, tech advocacy, and sanitation partnerships.

Covid-19 response: reflections on the lockdown

We’re asking ourselves: what does it look like to radically decongest prisons at this time?

Covid-19 response: a message for our community

Hear from our Founder, Alexander McLean, on how we're navigating this COVID-19 pandemic.

Welcome to our 2020 Secondees!

A warm welcome to our 2020 Secondees, senior African justice officials who join us from Kenya and Uganda for a 3-month professional development programme, in partnership with the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.

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.