Alpha Fall

  • Institute for Human Rights & Development in Africa (IHRDA)

  • Co-Founded with Julia Harrington

  • 1998 Global Fellow

Alpha Fall
  • Institute for Human Rights & Development in Africa (IHRDA)

  • Co-Founded with Julia Harrington

  • 1998 Global Fellow

bold idea

Strengthen the African human rights system through offering pro bono legal counsel to victims of human rights abuses, conducting training workshops and publishing and disseminating information on the African human rights system.

organization overview

While international human rights law possesses the potential to effect social change, it is often difficult to enforce. Presently, human rights advocates do not employ litigation frequently. While there are many reasons for this, there are two reasons that wield the greatest significance: the lack of understanding of the procedures, and the inaccessibility of international tribunals. The Institute for Human Rights & Development (IHRDA) in Africa is a pan-African human rights organization with its headquarters in Banjul, the Gambia. IHRDA specializes in the African regional human rights system, including impact litigation in national and international fora based on African human rights treaties, training and research, and publication in the procedures of African treaty mechanisms. While IHRDA offers three unique program areas (capacity building, litigation and research and publication), all of the program areas work towards a single goal: the advancement of human rights in Africa through the implementation of African human rights treaties.

Personal Bio

Alpha Fall was co-founder of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and served as its Executive Director from 2003 to 2005. A graduate of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, he held an LLM from the University of Notre Dame. Before co-founding IHRDA, Alpha worked at the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. He also worked with the International Centre for Transitional Justice in Kinshasa, and was Head of the Transitional Justice Unit at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bujumbura.

Alpha passed away in April 2011.

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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