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

Our objectives are...

To disseminate a culture of human rights, and to spread knowledge on International Humanitarian Law in Jordan and the Arab world.
To contribute to the process of changing society towards a more democratic and social upbringing, and to be conducive to the enhancement of rule of Law, respective of human rights.
To provide a free democratic platform for dialogue and for the coordination of the efforts undertaken by governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the field of human rights.
To aid governmental and non-governmental organizations in monitoring, documenting, and following up on the situation of human rights, as a step towards enforcing these rights on all legislative and executive levels.
To participate in revising local laws and regulations to support effective justice reform based on the rule of law.
To support the enforcement and protection of women's rights to strengthen their position in society.
To dedicate special attention to those segments of society in need of special protection such as children and the disabled.
To protect and to encourage human rights activists, and to support them in developing their skills.
To provide a scientifically-founded statistical and informational data base on relevant local, regional and international human rights declarations, covenants, and conventions.
ACHRS has consultative status with the ECOSOC (the United Nation Economic and Social Council).

ACHRS is a ...

Member of the Arab Network for NGOs
Member of the Arab Social Forum
Member of the International Federation for Human Rights (fidh)
Member of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)
Member of the Arab Coalition for the International Criminal Court
Member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Member of the International Federation of Workers' Education Associations (IFWEA)
Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)
Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Platform
Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Forum
Member of Arab Federation for Human Rights Centers
Member – Founder of Elections Network in the Arab Region (ENAR)
Member – Founder of the Arab Coalition Against the Death Penalty (ACADP)
Founder of Jordanian Human Rights Trainers Network
Founder of Arab Society on Academic Freedom
Member of Jordanian Network for Civil Society Organizations
Founder of Arab Human Rights Trainers Network
Cofounder of Iraqi League for Human Rights Trainers
Founder of Iraqi Network for Supporting Women & Youth in Elections
Member of the CoNGO Regional Committee for Asia-Pacific
Methods of work and target groups
While keeping in mind that human rights and democracy are relevant to all segments of society, our activities mainly target women and youth. The activities are carried out either solely by ACHRS or in cooperation with other local, Arabic and international NGOs and organizations of civil society.

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 organisations of civil society. This includes convening conferences, round tables, seminars and discussion rounds.
Conducting and facilitating studies and researches, issuing publications and documenting data.
Training courses

Since its foundation in 1999, ACHRS has organized and carried out more than 200 training courses with the participation of more than 5700 participants from 17 Arab countries, of which 65% are women and 70% are beneath 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. For a detailed list of the topics dealt with in the training courses so far, click here.

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.