EVOLVE
What we do
Evolve is a pro bono criminal justice development organisation. We use the experience and skills of legal experts to promote positive change in the criminal justice sector.
Our aim is to improve access to justice; build the capacity of lawyers, judges and institutions; and promote respect for human rights and the rule of law in criminal justice systems.
We currently focus on criminal justice delivery in Uganda. We work in close partnership with Uganda’s Justice, Law and Order Sector (‘JLOS’) to solve problems and promote criminal justice reform.
Our Work
Evolve promotes access to justice by offering technical legal expertise in the most serious criminal cases, to ensure that capital inmates receive fair, speedy and impartial decisions.
We have assisted in over 500 capital cases to date.
The Law Revision (Penalties in Criminal Matters) Miscellaneous (Amendment) Act 2019 will introduce a new life sentencing regime, once it has been gazetted.
Evolve is working in close partnership with the Sentencing Guidelines Committee, and other JLOS stakeholders, to ensure that new High Court Guidelines implement this new act, and to sensitise on its implications.
Evolve builds the capacity of people and institutions by delivering training and mentoring interventions in areas of criminal law and procedure.
Evolve promotes awareness of international safeguards surrounding the death penalty, and works to ensure that constitutional and domestic safeguards are consistently applied in all Ugandan courts.
Evolve continues to engage in advocacy, and provide consultative technical advice, on the scope of the death penalty in Uganda.
Many mentally ill inmates are currently detained without prospect of release. Evolve is working at the highest levels to secure redress for them by returning them to court, either so that they can be released - in some cases after up to 20 years of imprisonment - or so that they can face trial.
Many defendants remain on remand or without access to the appellate courts for inordinate periods of time due to missing or incomplete case files. Evolve works to track these files down across Uganda.
Evolve is working in close partnership with the Sentencing Guidelines Committee, the Ugandan Judiciary, and other JLOS Stakeholders, to draft, deliver, and monitor the next generation of High Court, and Magistrates' Court Sentencing Guidelines.
Marianne is a founding trustee of Evolve. She was called to the Bar in 2014 and is a practising barrister at Lincoln House Chambers in Manchester, specialising in criminal and civil law.
a Partner at Bowmans, a leading Pan-African law firm in Uganda. She spent many years practising in criminal, family and employment law 
where she enjoys a broad civil liberties practice encompassing criminal defence, prison law, public law and international human rights. Since 2014, she has supported Evolve’s work by acting pro bono in a number of appeals against conviction and/or sentence, working closely with Ugandan lawyers in both the civilian and military jurisdictions.
practising in London. He has a background in international human rights, immigration/asylum and criminal/regulatory law.
He has a background in regulatory, immigration/asylum, criminal and international human rights law and has been involved in legal capacity building in his native country of Somaliland. There, he trained members of the judiciary, the Attorney General’s Office and lawyers. He also worked with the Somaliland Law Reform Commission on Penal Reform.
currently a trainee solicitor at Moss Fallon Solicitors.
practising barrister at 1MCB Chambers in London. He defends and prosecutes in the Crown Court in serious and complex criminal matters 
Chairperson of 
serving Liverpool as a Member of Parliament for 18 years. He currently sits in the House of Lords as an Independent Crossbench Life Peer. Lord Alton has dedicated much of his political life to the promotion of human rights and human dignity. In Parliament, he is currently the Vice Chairman of the All Party Group on Uganda as well as Chairman of the APG on North Korea, Secretary of the APG on Sudan, and Vice Chairman of the APGs on Tibet, Egypt and on International Freedom of Religion or Belief. In 1997, Lord Alton was appointed as a Professor of Citizenship at Liverpool John Moores University and established the hugely successful Roscoe Foundation for Citizenship. Lord Alton ran the Roscoe Lecture Series and its associated Good Citizenship Awards for almost two decades and was recently awarded an Ambassador Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the civic life of Liverpool over the last four decades and to the University over the last two decades. 
