Hope Behind Bars Africa

Description

Hope Behind Bars Africa, also known as HBBA, is a Nigeria-based human rights organization. It works to close the justice and inequality gap for poor and vulnerable people caught up in the criminal justice system. It was founded in 2018 by Nigerian lawyer Oluwafunke Adeoye, who had a personal experience with wrongful detention in her family.

The organization uses a social enterprise model to provide free legal aid, technology and advocacy to indigent pre-trial detainees. It challenges unlawful detention and arbitrary arrest, and pursues systemic reforms with security agencies, correctional authorities and the judiciary. It also supports reformation and reintegration of formerly incarcerated people through vocational skills and community-based programmes.

Other work covers civic space and digital rights, including cases of arrest and detention linked to online expression, and a data lab that tracks patterns of unlawful arrest to inform policy. The organization is African and women-led, with a team that includes people directly affected by the justice system. It has partnered with groups such as the Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status, Catalyst 2030 and NAMATI, and holds United Nations ECOSOC consultative status.