Uganda Refugee Voice for Rights · Founded 2024

Born from
Lived Experience.

URVR did not emerge from a conference room. It emerged from Nakivale — from the injustice witnessed every day by refugees who decided that silence was no longer an option.

130K+

Refugees at Nakivale

500+

Cases Handled

Core Programs

URVR team working at Nakivale Refugee Settlement

A group of committed men and women — themselves shaped by forced displacement and the violence of the Great Lakes region — came together with a single conviction: that lasting peace can only be built on justice, and justice begins with giving the voiceless a voice.

— The founding assembly of URVR · Nakivale, Uganda

Nakivale · Isingiro District, Uganda

Where We Come From

One of Africa's oldest and largest settlements.

Nakivale Refugee Settlement is not an abstraction. It is a place where over 130,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, and beyond have built precarious lives — often without access to justice, legal identity, or protection from violence.

URVR was founded here. Not in Kampala, not in Geneva — but in Nakivale itself, by people who know what it means to navigate a system that was not built for their survival.

That proximity to the ground is our greatest asset. It is the reason our legal aid reaches people that no outside organization has found, and the reason our documentation is trusted by those who have been failed before.

A crisis rooted in the
Great Lakes region.

130K+

Refugees at Nakivale

UGX 400K

Avg. bribe for documents

Fees charged by URVR

10^th April 2022

Year of founding

Decades of armed conflict across the African Great Lakes — in the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, and South Sudan — have produced one of the world's most sustained displacement crises. Sexual violence has been used systematically as a weapon of war. Millions of civilians have been stripped of documentation, property, and legal identity.

Uganda's open-door refugee policy has sheltered many of these survivors. But shelter is not justice. At Nakivale, URVR exists to close the gap between the rights that law guarantees and the reality refugees actually live.

How We Got Here

A short history of determined action.

Before 2024 · The Context

Witnessing injustice, day after day

For years, the founders of URVR lived and worked inside Nakivale — witnessing systematic corruption in document registration, SGBV cases left undocumented, children without protection, and communities without legal voice. The conviction grew: someone had to act.

2024 · The Founding

An extraordinary general assembly

At an extraordinary general assembly, a group of committed men and women formally constituted Uganda Refugee Voice for Rights (URVR) as a community-based, non-profit organization. The mandate was clear: legal aid, documentation, protection, and advocacy — all free of charge.

2024–2025 · First Operations

500+ cases. UGX 0 charged.

URVR launched its five core programs across Nakivale and expanded operations to Isingiro District and Kampala. Over 500 legal cases were handled. More than 1,200 people received civic education. Zero fees were charged to any beneficiary.

2025–Present · Growth & Recognition

Building toward national and international reach

URVR formalized its institutional framework, developed partnerships with regional civil society networks, and began engaging international human rights bodies. The mission — unchanged since day one — now reaches further than Nakivale's borders.

What We Were Built On

Three convictions that have not changed.

Justice Cannot Be Bought

Access to legal protection cannot depend on ability to pay. Every URVR service — legal representation, documentation, advocacy — is free to all beneficiaries, always. No fees. No conditions.

Community Knows Best

URVR is led by people who have experienced displacement themselves. This proximity to lived reality is not a detail — it is the source of our credibility, our access, and our effectiveness.

Dignity Is Universal

Nationality, status, gender, or sexual orientation do not determine who deserves protection. URVR serves refugees, asylum seekers, and host communities alike — because human rights have no borders.

The story continues.
Be part of it.

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Born from Lived Experience.