[1] IHRDA's mandate is to increase the effectiveness and accessibility of the human rights protection mechanisms of the African Union, since the most critical challenge to the effectiveness of the African human rights system is a lack of awareness concerning its procedures.
On February 11, 2008, IHRDA celebrated ten years of standing up for human rights in Africa.
To achieve its mandate, IHRDA uses its particular expertise in the application of African human rights law to: IHRDA engages with domestic actors in various countries through capacity-building and case-building, and provides pro bono legal counsel to victims of human rights violations.
However, IHRDA continues to pay attention to diverse issues emerging and pertinent on the African continent.
IHRDA runs the African Human Rights Case Law Analyser (the CLA),[3] which is the first and most comprehensive online collection of legislations and decisions from African regional and sub-regional human rights protection bodies in three languages (English, French and Portuguese).