The Center

The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) is an independent, regional, scientific, advocacy center for studies, research and training on human rights issues and democracy.

In pursuit of contributing to the dissemination of a culture of human rights, our work and activities aim at strengthening civil society in Jordan and in the Arab World, and at inducing a change to the general level of awareness and sensibility towards human rights and democracy.

The projects carried out by the ACHRS mainly concentrate on training for democracy and human rights as they are closely related and highly complementary. Conducting studies and research to serve as an informational basis is a further means to achieve our aims.

Being a young organization, founded in 1999 and registered in Jordan, the work of ACHRS strongly depends on the knowledge and skills of its staff and volunteers. Currently, ACHRS has a personnel staff of 10 and counts 150 actively contributing volunteers.

ACHRS has had consultative status with the ECOSOC (the United Nations Economic and Social Council) since 2006 and is the winner of the United Nation’s Human Rights Prize 2023.

While keeping in mind that human rights and democracy are relevant to all segments of society, our activities mainly target women and youth.

Generally, ACHRS organizes educational, intellectual, and cultural activities. Nevertheless, the main focus of our work remains on:

• Capacity-building through training courses and workshops.
• Providing and disseminating information and facilitating the exchange of experiences between different sectors of society and between NGOs and organizations of civil society. This includes convening conferences, round tables, seminars and discussion rounds.
• Conducting and facilitating studies and research, issuing publications and documenting data.

Since its foundation in 1999, ACHRS has also organized and carried out more than 200 training courses with more than 5700 participants from 17 Arab countries, of which 65% are women and 70% are under the age of 30. The courses have focused on human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, rights of minorities, cultural rights, democracy, constitution, election monitoring, International Humanitarian Law,  transitional justice, international standards of fair trials, and on workers’ education.

ACHRS Training courses mainly involve the participation of:

• Students in general
• Academics and higher institutes’ and university students
• Media workers and journalists
• Lawyers and judges
• Civil society organizations
• Governmental and non-governmental organizations working in the field of human rights
• The scope of our work is regional, therefore the training courses are not only held in Jordan but also take place in other Arab countries. Participation is not limited to Jordanians but is open to nationals of other Arab countries.

The ACHRS activities are carried out either solely by the center or in cooperation with other local, Arabic and international NGOs and organizations of civil society.