About Us

We are a movement of people walking with a limp, from different walks of life. There is no us or them, no beneficiary or benefactor. Each of us is both.

Our Story

Founded in 2007 as African Prisons Project, Justice Defenders is a registered UK charity and US nonprofit with nearly 350 people working across three African countries.

Some of us are free and some imprisoned. Some are poor in spirit and some just poor. We find value in serving others and showing mercy. We’re people who’ve fallen from the law and been captured by grace. Given our histories, we know that without grace, we are nothing.

Our Values

Bravery

We courageously act for a new and better world.

We seek to do what hasn’t been done before, or that which we haven’t done before. We act bravely, take risks, and move forward to a preferred future. One where justice is accessible, reliable, and can be practised best by those who need it most.

Humility

We’re servants, sinners, and saints.

We aspire to be servant lawyers. We recognise that the law can help us gain power and wealth. But we choose to give away some of those things, so we may step towards those on the margins of society. We have very little to offer but everything to give.

Solidarity

We’re building bridges in adversarial justice systems.

We value radical kinship, within our community and in partnership with other agencies. We are seeking allies out of adversaries, who will drive us forward with the hope of a better future, without being limited by our past.

OUR FOUNDER

Alexander McLean

Alexander is the Founder and CEO of Justice Defenders. He is passionate about justice, having trained as a barrister and magistrate. During gap year travels to East Africa, McLean fundraised to provide better health facilities and educate Ugandan inmates about the law. After graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2007, he moved to Kampala, where he created a team of local and international staff and volunteers to develop the work of the African Prisons Project.
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He is a Senior TED Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and UK Young Philanthropist of the Year. He appears in TIME’s 30 Under 30 Changing the World and ‘The Power List’, featuring Britain's most influential people of African and African-Caribbean heritage.