The aim of the research and advocacy work of the Centre for Human Rights is to make a contribution to the realisation of human rights in Africa and beyond.

Children's Rights Unit
The Children’s Rights Unit is a pan-African platform established to carry out and support pan-African research in children’s rights, provide capacity strengthening training for government, intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations, as well as advocate for the promotion and protection of children’s rights in Africa.

Democracy, Transparency & Digital Rights Unit
The DTDR Unit is aimed at supporting the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the promotion and protection of Freedom of Expression and Access to information on the continent.

Disability Rights Unit
The Disability Rights Unit is committed to finding evidence-based ways of addressing the rights of persons with disabilities on the African continent. This includes conducting research on international disability rights standards and instruments, building capacity among governments, national human rights institutions, academia, civil society and communities, and engaging with judicial, quasi-judicial and non-judicial redress mechanisms.

Implementation & Litigation Unit
The aim of the Implementation and Litigation Unit is to examine the factors which impact on human rights law implementation by nine states across Europe (Turkey, Georgia, Czech Republic), Africa (Cameroon, Algeria and Tanzania) and Americas (Colombia, Guatemala, Canada).

Freedom from Violence Unit
The Unlawful Killings Unit, now referred to as the Violence Unit was established in 2014 to research the incidence of unlawful killings across the African continent, working within the Centre for Human Rights and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa. Unlawful killings, in this context, are taken to include any killings that violate the right to life and hence are contrary to international law.

Women's Rights Unit
The Unit approaches Women's Rights issues holistically and therefore also includes in its work the protection of the rights of sexual minority groups. It also realises the importance of inter-disciplinary considerations of women's and gender issues and therefore draws from disciplines such as sociology, anthropology in addition to (human rights) law.