We cover a broad range of issues, including conflict-related abuses, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial killings, discrimination, and unlawful restrictions on freedom of expression and association by security forces across our region.
It is vital to ensure accountability for these particularly egregious abuses by state agents that fundamentally undermine the basic protections the state is required to provide, and too often are aimed at supressing specific national, ethnic or other marginalised groups.
Our objectives are:
- Conflict: We address issues in conflict that are currently under-litigated including conflict related sexual violence; human rights violations in occupied territories including unlawful criminal justice systems, propaganda and freedom of expression, freedom of movement including forced displacement/deportation of individuals and groups; and intersectional human rights violations occurring during conflict.
- Security Forces Accountability: We identify and litigate egregious cases of security force violations that demonstrate gross failures in planning and operations and/or flagrant violations of the right to life/inhuman treatment. We will identify and litigate new areas of security force violations for example, unlawful use of less-lethal weapons (such as rubber bullets).
- Enforced Disappearances: We continue to push for the implementation of existing judgments and to encourage collaboration between international mechanisms such as the UN and the Council of Europe, to address the systemic use of enforced disappearance and provide closure for the families of the disappeared. With partners, we raise awareness of the ongoing issue and engage with the families, to understand their priorities and enable them to shape our advocacy in this area.
