Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is one of the most effective shields for defending human rights globally. It is a lever of social change and can be used to create space and other opportunities in exposing systematic and widespread violations of human rights but also its protection and promotion.

ADVEJI Public Interest litigation supports both public/ community interest cases, individual litigants, and other evolving cases. The objective and approach of this program is that any person or group of persons whose rights and civil liberties is infringed is able to access quality, free or low-cost legal support as an enabler of access to justice.

ADVEJI is interested in expanding the frontiers of access to social justice, through both our programmes and also partnership referrals, by engaging Courts of law, other judicial bodies and private legal practitioners. To achieve this ADVEJI is establishing a fully-fledged legal aid support structure that will leverage all legal mechanisms for the protection and promotion of the rights and civil liberties of vulnerable people in Uganda. ADVEJI also plans to sign MOUs with a number of private law firms to strengthen our capacity to expand our scope of legal support and advisory services.

ADVEJI plans to work with communities through Community Rights Champions (CRCs) and District Rights Monitoring Groups (DRMGs) and other community based partners to identify and support cases of rights violations. We also conduct outreaches including mobile legal clinics for legal education and community /town hall sensitization circuits on human rights and civil liberties to enhance citizen agency in protecting their rights and civil liberties.

PIL can only succeed where both horizontal and vertical partnerships have been built. ADVEJI is currently exploring key partnerships with Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC) of Makerere University and its affiliate association Network for Public Interest Lawyers (NETPIL), Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), and Uganda Law Society (ULS) among others.

ADVEJI also appreciates the importance of regional and international mechanisms and systems in the reporting, inspection and protection and promotion of human rights. We therefore seek to build our internal capacity and be active participants in these processes as a lever of strengthening local protection mechanisms of rights and fundamental freedoms of vulnerable people in Uganda.