The European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) was set up in 2003 by a team of human rights lawyers and experts with a wealth of experience of taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights. We are an independent legal centre that defends victims of human rights abuses before international courts, when they have not been able to secure justice in their country.
About us
We work in partnership with leading human rights lawyers from Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to address systemic human rights violations and raise standards to protect victims and prevent future abuses. Find out more about our mission and goals in the ‘Our Work’ section.
Our team
Barbara Karch
Finance and Grants Manager
Barbara Karch
Finance and Grants Manager
Barbara Karch joined EHRAC in February 2017 from Against Violence and Abuse (AVA) where she was Administration and Finance Manager for over four years. Prior to that, she was Finance and Administration Officer at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Barbara has extensive experience of all aspects of financial management required by a small NGO, including working with a variety of income streams. She holds AAT Professional Diploma in Accounting and CIPFA Certificate in Charity Finance and Accountancy.
Camilla Alonzo
Lawyer
Camilla Alonzo
Lawyer
Camilla joined EHRAC in January 2022. She is a human rights lawyer with particular expertise in the area of equality and non-discrimination. Before joining EHRAC, Camilla was acting as Head of Human Rights Monitoring at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where she led the organisation’s international human rights advocacy to UN treaty bodies. Prior to that, Camilla was the Equal Rights Trust’s Senior Legal and Programmes Officer, working in partnership with human rights defenders in Russia, Yemen and Egypt to promote the rights to equality and non-discrimination in line with international standards. She has also spent time working at the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia, and for UK-based NGOs REDRESS and Rights and Security International. Camilla is a UK qualified solicitor, having practised as an employment lawyer for a London-based law firm, and has an BA in Law from Cambridge University and an LLM in Public International Law and Human Rights from the London School of Economics.
Charlotta Blomqvist
Legal Project Consultant
Charlotta Blomqvist
Legal Project Consultant
Charlotta joined EHRAC in October 2020 from the Equal Rights Trust, where she worked on various projects related to non-discrimination and equality law, first as a legal intern, then as Programmes Coordinator. Previously, she also interned at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, working in the monitoring and impact evaluation team. She holds an LLB in Law (European Legal Studies) from the University of Southampton, an MA in Diplomacy and International Law from the American University of Paris, and a summer course certificate in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. She is also a qualified lawyer at the New York bar, and speaks French, Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Elba Bendo
Lawyer
Elba Bendo
Lawyer
Elba Bendo is a human rights lawyer specialising in equality and non-discrimination law. For seven years, she has worked alongside front-line organisations and people with lived experience of marginalisation to bring an equality lens to human rights violations. Prior to joining EHRAC, Elba acted as Director of Law Reform for a leading legal advocacy organisation in Canada, where she undertook advocacy aimed at addressing inequities experienced by women and gender-diverse people. Elba has also worked alongside Indigenous land defenders in Myanmar to bring forward a successful public nuisance litigation against a coal mining polluter and to challenge unlawful land grabs by the military. She started her legal career litigating cases of employment discrimination on behalf of workers in situations of precarious employment. In her current role, Elba works alongside EHRAC’s partners in the region to bring cases of grave human rights violations by security forces before the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations human rights bodies. She is also leading EHRAC’s efforts to build a legal resource database covering the subject of enforced disappearances.
Jadesola Ighodalo
Finance and Grants Officer
Jadesola Ighodalo
Finance and Grants Officer
I joined EHRAC in January 2022 as Finance and Grants Officer, previously I worked at City of London Corporation for about 22 years, as an Accounts Officer. I have experience in public sector finance having worked in various sections within the Finance department of the City of London Corporation.
I am ACCA qualified and I have a BSc Hons in Business Economics from the University of East London.
Jessica Gavron
Co-Director, Head of Legal
Jessica Gavron
Co-Director, Head of Legal
As Co-Director, Head of Legal, Jess is responsible for the strategic direction and development of EHRAC’s legal work, leads the legal team and has joint responsibility for EHRAC’s operations. She is a UK barrister with more than 20yrs experience litigating and teaching international human rights law and criminal law. She has litigated cases on behalf of hundreds of victims of gross human rights violations against Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Armenia, including ground-breaking cases on the right to life, torture, conflict, terrorism, repression of civil society, and LGBTQI+ and GBV discrimination before the European Court of Human Rights and UN mechanisms. She has taught International Human Rights Law to undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals at the London School of Economics and trained lawyers from across Europe. She advised on issues of international human rights and humanitarian law in cases arising from the occupation of the West Bank and Operation Cast Lead, Gaza (2009) and started her career as a criminal defence barrister. She has a BA from Cambridge University and an LLM (Distinction) in Public International Law from the London School of Economics. Jess has been with EHRAC for more than a decade and was previously Legal Director.
Kate Levine
Senior Legal Consultant
Kate Levine
Senior Legal Consultant
Kate has worked with EHRAC since 2014, initially as a Lawyer, and since 2021, as a Senior Legal Consultant. She litigates strategic cases before the European Court of Human Rights and UN Treaty Bodies in partnership with lawyers from across EHRAC’s target region. Her expertise includes challenging gender-based violence, addressing civil society repression, and seeking justice for human rights abuses in conflict. Kate designs and runs trainings for lawyers on strategic litigation, and produces resources on litigating gender-based violence. Alongside consulting with EHRAC, Kate has worked for the Clooney Foundation for Justice on documenting fair trial violations and advocating for journalists targeted for their free speech, and with Equality Now on the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence cases. Previously Kate worked as a Human Rights Programme Officer at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, where she supported civil society organisations through grant making and capacity building. Kate qualified as a UK solicitor in 2009, starting out her legal practice with a global litigation law firm in London.
Laura McCartan
Programme and MEL Manager
Laura McCartan
Programme and MEL Manager
Laura joined EHRAC in January 2024. Her background is a mix of community gender based violence work, and humanitarian response, having worked to support NGOs in six countries. She holds a masters in International Human Rights Law, and previously worked at Media Defence to support journalists at risk.
Laure Trebosc
Co-Director, Head of Programmes
Laure Trebosc
Co-Director, Head of Programmes
As Co-Director for Programmes, Laure is responsible for the strategic direction and organisational growth of the organisation, leads the Programme Team and oversees the day to day operations of EHRAC in areas such as fundraising, project management, finance and communications. She has 20 years of experience of event, project and programme management in the non-profit sector in the UK, France, Russia and Ukraine. Laure joined EHRAC from Lumos, where she managed the development of new programmes for the de-institutionalisation of vulnerable children in Ukraine for 3.5 years. She holds an MA (Hons) in Political Science from the Paris Institute of Political Science and a BSc (Hons) in Russian Joint Studies from the London School of Economics. Laure Trebosc joined EHRAC in July 2014.
Lindsay Owen
Development Manager
Lindsay Owen
Development Manager
Lindsay joined EHRAC in July 2023. She has extensive experience in the charity sector across policy, strategy and fundraising. She came to EHRAC from APPEAL, a charity and legal practice fighting miscarriages of justice in the UK, where she was the sole fundraiser. Prior to that and a career break teaching English in Spain, Lindsay was Deputy Director of Policy and Evaluation at The Prince’s Trust. She has also worked at the Charity Commission and as a charity trustee and chair. Lindsay holds a BA in History from the University of Sheffield.
Ramute Remezaite
Senior Legal Consultant/Implementation Lead
Ramute Remezaite
Senior Legal Consultant/Implementation Lead
Ramute Remezaite is a human rights lawyer, and joined EHRAC as a Legal Consultant in 2014. As a litigant, she specialises in cases relating to protection of human rights defenders and civil society, independence of the legal profession, ill-treatment and torture, ineffective investigations, and restrictions of Convention rights for ulterior purposes, among other issues. Having been based in Azerbaijan and Georgia prior to 2014, Ramute primarily focuses on EHRAC's work in these countries, as well as Ukraine, including Crimea. In 2021, Ramute received her PhD in law from Middlesex University. In her research, she focused on compliance with and impact of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in states on the spectrum of democratisation, with a particular focus on the South Caucasus states. In 2013-2014, based in Azerbaijan, she litigated civil rights cases before the ECtHR and the UN bodies together with local human rights lawyers, and ran a capacity building programme for litigating organisations on the implementation of ECtHR judgments in the South Caucasus region. Before that, she worked as a Program Officer at the Bertha Justice Initiative in London, and at the Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo, Norway. She has also done research and consultancy work for the European Implementation Network, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, Open Society Justice Initiative, International Partnership for Human Rights, Article 19 and other organisations. Ramute graduated from Oslo University, Law School with LL.M. in Public International Law and Master in Law from Vilnius University.
Tina Devadasan
Programme and Financial Advisor
Tina Devadasan
Programme and Financial Advisor
Tina Devadasan is legally qualified and holds a Master in Business Administration, with a strong background in management, fundraising, financial and project management. She was formerly projects officer at the Kurdish Human Rights Project and was primarily responsible for consecutive Community Fund (National Lottery) grants as well as successive incremental governmental and grant-making trust funding.
Toby Collis
Lawyer
Toby Collis
Lawyer
Toby joined EHRAC in August 2020. He is a generalist human rights lawyer, and works on a wide range of cases and legal issues. Prior to EHRAC, Toby worked at a number of organisations including Advocates for International Development (A4ID), the Open Society Justice Initiative, and as an independent legal consultant. He has been a case lawyer on human rights cases, trainer and researcher on strategic human rights litigation and sustainable development, and facilitator of litigator networks for regional human rights fora. He has worked on cases at the European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Committee, the International Criminal Court, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Originally from Australia, in a past life he was a commercial lawyer and clerked at the New South Wales Court of Appeal. Toby is qualified as a solicitor in New South Wales, Australia, and has received the BCL (Distinction) (equivalent to LLM) from the University of Oxford, and LLB (Hons 1) and BA (Hons 1) from Macquarie University, Sydney.
EHRAC’s work is overseen by an International Steering Committee and a UK-based Advisory Board.
We receive support from a number of grant-making organisations and would like to thank the following for their kind and generous support.
Digital Freedom Fund
The Digital Freedom Fund (DFF) exists to support the digital rights community in Europe to advance and protect human rights in digital spaces and reduce the negative impact of technology in the world. DFF supports Europe’s digital rights litigators and…
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Digital Freedom Fund
Supporter
The Digital Freedom Fund (DFF) exists to support the digital rights community in Europe to advance and protect human rights in digital spaces and reduce the negative impact of technology in the world.
DFF supports Europe’s digital rights litigators and activists, enabling them to become more effective in their work. Through its grants, DFF supports the costs of strategic litigation, and of skills and knowledge-development, and networking, events. By equipping digital rights litigators to win more strategic digital rights cases, DFF seeks ultimately to contribute to a society in which technology and digital spaces are used justly and fairly so that all communities and individuals can fully enjoy their human rights.
East-West Management Institute
East-West Management Institute (EWMI) works to strengthen democratic societies by bringing together government, civil society, and the private sector – to build accountable, capable and transparent institutions. EWMI is implementing a new five-year human rights and justice support programme funded…
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East-West Management Institute
East-West Management Institute (EWMI) works to strengthen democratic societies by bringing together government, civil society, and the private sector – to build accountable, capable and transparent institutions. EWMI is implementing a new five-year human rights and justice support programme funded by the USAID entitled Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG) Activity. The purpose of PROLoG is to strengthen the justice system in Georgia to ensure due process, judicial independence, and the protection of human rights.
International Partnership for Human Rights
Based in Brussels, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) works closely with civil society groups from different countries to raise human rights concerns at the international level and promote respect for the rights of vulnerable communities. Together with partners, IPHR…
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International Partnership for Human Rights
Based in Brussels, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) works closely with civil society groups from different countries to raise human rights concerns at the international level and promote respect for the rights of vulnerable communities. Together with partners, IPHR monitors, documents and reports on human rights developments in the former Soviet Union in light of international standards. They carry out advocacy to influence the policies and actions of international institutions on human rights issues and campaign to raise awareness of pressing human rights concerns among a broader international public.
Open Society Foundation
The Open Society Foundation (OSF), a private operating and grant-making foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSF implements a range of initiatives to support…
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Open Society Foundation
The Open Society Foundation (OSF), a private operating and grant-making foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSF implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSF works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.
Sigrid Rausing Trust
The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a philanthropic foundation based in Britain. It was set up in 1995 by Sigrid Rausing as a grant giving trust and is guided by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The funding categories…
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Sigrid Rausing Trust
The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a philanthropic foundation based in Britain. It was set up in 1995 by Sigrid Rausing as a grant giving trust and is guided by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The funding categories are all human rights orientated and aim to form a coherent framework for the work of the Trust.
EHRAC at Middlesex university
EHRAC has been based at the School of Law, Middlesex University, since 2013. We benefit from being situated in the University, and the opportunity to collaborate with leading experts in international and human rights law.
Careers
Join our team to help advance the promotion and protection of human rights in our target region and beyond. Opportunities to work with EHRAC are advertised on this page when vacancies are available. We also periodically advertise our fellowship programmes, which offer talented candidates the chance to learn about international human rights litigation in practice.
