• Equipping stakeholders with key skills to transform human rights knowledge into practice

• Fostering implementation in everyday work and activities

• Developing and implementing pilots to test new approaches

• Monitoring compliance regarding human rights standards and principles

• Networking with stakeholders who share the same commitment

Allen Sophia is the Director and co founder of IHRN East Africa. She is a human rights advocate working with various stakeholders including Government institutions, international agencies, development partners, civil society and the private sector to integrate human rights based approaches in development and humanitarian work.

Allen has worked as an independent human rights practitioner, as an Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and development partners in Uganda and as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University.

She led the team that concluded the development of a five year strategic plan for the Justice Law and Order Sector and has been instrumental in highlighting key human rights issues (e.g. torture and poor conditions in prisons, low levels of human rights awareness) and developing strategies and implementation plans for by responsible stakeholders.

Allen holds an LLM from the University of Manchester, UK and a Diploma (distinction) in Human Rights from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, the Netherlands.

Faridah holds a degree in development studies and has experience in working with development programmes including those under the United Nations Development Fund in Uganda where she interned for six months in 2005. Faridah has participated in a number of research and community initiatives aimed at highlighting key challenges affecting the poor. Areas worked in have included raising awareness on environmental rights; child labour among fishing communities; and access to justice at the community level.