Draft:Oluwafunke Adeoye

Oluwafunke Adeoye, better known as Funke Adeoye, is a Nigerian lawyer and human rights defender.

She is the founder and executive director of Hope Behind Bars Africa, an organization that promotes human rights and criminal justice reforms using legal aid, research, evidence based advocacy and technology.

Adeoye led interventions that amplified the work of grassroots advocates across sub-Saharan Africa and saved hundreds of indigent pre-trial detainees and also oversees Made in Corrections, a social enterprise aimed at preventing recidivism by empowering incarcerated women and young persons in Nigeria.

Early life
Adeoye was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but she grew up in Lagos. She holds an LLB from University of Benin (Nigeria) and has attended two flagship programs for non-profit leaders at Lagos Business School (LBS).

Career
Adeoye founded Hope behind bars Africa in 2018. Over 7,000 justice-involved individuals have benefitted from their interventions. She has initiated campaigns including the campaign to decriminalize poverty.

She once worked at Associate at Olumide Sofowora SAN Chambers as a legal lawyer before embarking on social justice space as a volunteer for Amnesty International.

Adeoye also worked as Program Manager at Global Rights, an international human rights organisation where she facilitated the capacity development training of over 300 grassroot organizations on regulatory compliance. She engaged the Upper Chamber of Nigeria’s parliament on the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, a legislation that could impact negatively on the civic space.

She co-authored “Legal Representation for Indigent Pre-trial Detainees” that gained recognition from Federal Ministry of Justice and Legal Aid Council.

Awards and Recognition
She is a 2019 LEAP Africa Social Innovation Fellow, a One Young World Ambassador and a 2022 CivicHive fellow. She is also a (TFAA ) Future Africa Finalist for Advocacy, a 100 Leading Ladies Africa Honoree and a 2023 Acumen West Africa Fellow. She won the Dragons Den Prize at Unleash Plus Innovation Bootcamp in Mysore, India.

In 2023, she won Waislitz Global Citizen’s Choice Award She was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship and was listed by Attic London as one of the lawyers changing the world for the better in 2020.

Personal life
She is a Christian and lives in Abuja, Nigeria, with her husband.