African Human Rights Consortium

Background

The African Human Rights Consortium was a Gaborone, Botswana-based organization that received more than $1.1 million in grants from three left-of-center foundations: the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. The grants were made to train African civil society groups in human rights investigation, documentation, and advocacy. It was founded in 2008 by Peter Takirambudde, a lawyer who had previously worked as Human Rights Watch’s executive director for Africa. ^{4  1  2  3}

The African Human Rights Consortium conducted a training workshop with the Kenya Human Rights Commission on new media tools and human rights documentation, which took place in August 2012, roughly nine months after Takirambudde left the organization to become the Ford Foundation’s representative for southern Africa. ^{5  6}

History and Activities

The African Human Rights Consortium was established in Gaborone, the capital and largest city of the southern African nation of Botswana, in 2008 by Peter Takirambudde, a Ugandan-born lawyer who had previously worked as Human Rights Watch’s executive director for Africa. The organization’s stated purpose was to train members of civil society across the African continent in human rights investigation, documentation, and advocacy, with the aim of professionalizing local human rights work. Takirambudde worked as the Consortium’s founding chief executive officer while concurrently teaching law at the University of Botswana. ^{6  4}

The Consortium’s documented activities consisted of training and capacity-building programming for other African human rights and civil society organizations. In August 2012, the Consortium co-conducted a training workshop with the Kenya Human Rights Commission focused on new media tools and human rights documentation, drawing civil society and media participants from East African countries. The Consortium’s operations have been concentrated in a narrow window between its 2008 founding and Takirambudde’s November 2011 departure. No successor chief executive officer or other leadership was identified, and it may have ceased operations or become dormant sometime after 2012. ^{1  5}

Leadership

Peter Takirambudde was the founder and CEO of the African Human Rights Consortium, holding in the role from its establishment in 2008 until his departure in November 2011, when he left to become the Ford Foundation’s representative for southern Africa. Takirambudde simultaneously held a professorship of law at the University of Botswana, where he also served as dean of the faculty of social sciences; he additionally taught as a law professor at Lund University in Sweden. Before founding the Consortium, Takirambudde spent 12 years from 1996 to 2008 as executive director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, where he was its principal spokesperson and strategist on African human rights issues. He held a bachelor’s degree from Makerere University in Uganda and an LL.M. and J.S.D. in law from Yale Law School. Takirambudde died in November 2017. No successor chief executive officer, additional staff, or board members were identified for the Consortium following Takirambudde’s 2011 departure. No further public activity or leadership by the organization was identified after 2012. ^{6  4  7}

Financials

The African Human Rights Consortium received at least $1,169,750 in grants from three U.S. foundations between 2008 and 2011. In 2008, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded the Consortium $500,000 to “support capacity-building for African civil society organizations.” In September 2009, the Ford Foundation approved a $530,500 grant to the Consortium for research, training, and advocacy work aimed at strengthening the operating capacity of human rights and civil society organizations across Africa; the grant period ran through November 2011. In June 2011, the Open Society Institute created and funded by George Soros approved a $139,250 grant to the Consortium “to build and professionalize human rights practice in Africa.” All three grants were awarded within a four-year span corresponding to the period in which Peter Takirambudde worked as the Consortium’s CEO. ^{1  2  3}