The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.
In 2024, schoolteacher Joyseph Sseruwagi fled their hometown in Uganda and crossed into Kenya, fearing they’d be arrested and sentenced to decades in prison. Joyseph’s crime? Their sexual orientation, which is severely criminalized under Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act. Joyseph now lives in Kenya, where they lead an organization supported by AJWS partner Jinsiangu, helping other LGBTQI+ …
When we think of refugees—we think of war. But around the world, people are driven from their homes by other forces that rarely make the headlines. Today, nearly 70 countries criminalize homosexuality and queerness, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to the death penalty. These laws, and the social stigma and violence that they provoke, force …
Since 2011, AJWS partner organization Y’en a Marre has been working to save Senegal’s democracy. In 2024, they began saving lives as well. That’s when Y’en a Marre opened KARIBU — a safe house for activists from nearby African countries who were forced into exile. KARIBU (named after the Swahili word for “welcome”) not only …
On a recent afternoon in Bangalore, India, almost 100 people pack the auditorium of the city’s National Gallery of Modern Art. For over an hour, they witness something extraordinarily rare: eight middle-aged queer and trans people talking about their lives and dreams, their families and friends. It’s a professional performance complete with music, lights, sets, …
In February, we welcomed Tawanda Mutasah as AJWS’s new President and CEO. A veteran human rights leader, he has spent the past three decades advancing rights-based social change around the world. Tawanda joins AJWS at a challenging time for global human rights, with authoritarianism on the rise and freedoms being curtailed. And so, we sat …
Hours after Ana* gave birth at a public hospital in an eastern province of the Dominican Republic, immigration officials descended on the mother and her newborn to transfer them to a detention center to await deportation to Haiti. What followed was a five-hour ordeal during which Ana and her baby were confined to a vehicle …
