Joaninne Nanyange is a Ugandan feminist human rights lawyer, researcher, activist and writer with over ten years’ experience working with marginalized communities including LGBTIQ persons; Sex Workers; Persons who Use and Inject Drugs; and Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Uganda, Kenya and Liberia. She currently works as the Director of Sexual Health & Rights for American Jewish World Service (AJWS), taking lead on the organization’s Sexual Health and Rights grantmaking around the world.
She has previously worked as the Head of Research and Advocacy and Deputy Executive Director at Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF – Uganda) where she took lead on various research and documentation initiatives like the annual documentation of violations suffered by sex workers and LGBTIQ persons in Uganda; creation of partnerships and training of state actors like the Police and the Uganda Human Rights Commission on the rights of LGBTIQ persons; analysis of laws that affect criminalized communities in Uganda; and being central in the building of the legal challenges at the Ugandan Constitutional Court and the East African Court of Justice, that led to the annulment of Uganda’s Anti- Homosexuality Act in 2014. She has consulted on projects for the LGBTIQ community in Uganda and continues online and in-person feminist activism on issues concerning criminalized communities.