Vision Statement

Our vision is to work towards building an Africa free of gendered violence, human rights violations and to promote responsive and victim-centred health and justice systems through high quality research and evidence led advocacy. Mission

1: Our mission is to promote access to justice, advocate for improved health and justice services and address gendered violence and human rights violations against vulnerable and underserved communities who have been disproportionally affected. We work to inform the formulation of policies and facilitate violence prevention in Africa. We do this through interdisciplinary and empirical research, evidence-led advocacy and education, training, technical assistance and strategic partnerships.

Focus areas 
The unit focuses on the following areas of work:

• Victims of gendered violence
• Victims of human rights violations
• Underserved communities (including persons in places of detention, gender and sexually diverse populations, women, children, persons with disabilities and persons experiencing mental problems)
• Health and justice systems

Based on the above focus areas, our goals are therefore to:
1. promote equitable access to, and provision of, victim-centred health and justice services;
2. prevent gendered violence and injustices through empirical research by highlighting the experiences of those who are disproportionally affected by the consequences of violence;
3. contribute to the formulation of violence prevention policies and programmes through the sharing of interdisciplinary and empirical research outcomes; and
4. provide evidence-led advocacy and education, capacity building and technical assistance together with strategic partners.

Core values
1. Ethical practice
2. Evidence-based decisions
3. Transparency (In the context of research: methods and procedures)
4. Respect for human rights, and dignity
5. Responsive
6. Accountability
7. Collaborative
8. Innovative
9. Interdisciplinary
10. Constructive and positive working environment
11. Women-led, gender diverse and transformation driven