ABOUT HRDI

Regional Focus

While Africa is a vast continent with great diversity among countries, within countries and within communities, there is much that is common. Within the three regions (Southern Africa, East Africa and Great Lakes) where HRDI works, there are language differences, some countries have a civil law system, some a common law system, and some have been at war with each other, however within the HRDI programme, the common goal of challenging unfair discrimination and protecting the weak and vulnerable binds all these diverse strands.

HRDI works in the following countries within the three regions:

Southern Africa

We work with university law clinics and NGOs/CBOs in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland and Angola.

East Africa

We work with university law clinics and NGOs/CBOs in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Great Lakes

We work with university law clinics and NGOs/CBOs in  Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The physical boundaries and the differences between the countries are broken through by focused work toward developing common strategies to address common problems. HRDI facilitates this through, among other things, the following means:

• Multi-country teams that work on key issues (or campaigns) identified through community based consultations relating to unfair discrimination based on HIV status
• Multi-country case teams to work on public interest cases that might arise in one country yet be a problem in other neighbouring countries as well
• Study visits to learn from each other, for example a visit of the participants from University of Kinshasa, DRC (where there was no university based law clinic) to National University of Rwanda (where there is an established, well functioning and effective university law clinic)