European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights is an independent, nonprofitnon-governmental organization with the aim of enforcing human rights through legal means. Using litigation, it tries to hold state and non-state actors responsible for egregious abuses. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck together with a group of human rights lawyers, in order to help protect the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other declarations of human rights and national constitutions, by juridical means. ECCHR engages in litigation, using European, international, and national law to help protect human rights.
Topics and Focus
ECCHR initiates, develops, and supports high-impact, strategic human rights litigation to hold state and non-state actors accountable for the violations of the rights of the most vulnerable. ECCHR works on cases that illustrate and highlight important legal and social problems, recognizing that human rights violations are committed in specific contexts with a view to achieving certain financial, social, military or political goals. ECCHR actively litigates cases and but also researches, investigates, and helps to coordinate the development strategies of legal advocacy around cases. The organization conducts it work within a network of partner organizations, lawyers and those affected by concrete human rights violations. ECCHR's work focusses on cases in the following areas:
Grave human rights violations including torture and sexual violence in Yemen, Colombia, Syria and Congo
Dealing with the crimes of the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile
NATO and UN responsibility in Serbia and Afghanistan
Migration
EU's asylum, refugee and migration policies
Unlawful push-backs at the EU's external borders
Business and Human Rights
The Business and Human Rights Program looks at three main areas: transnational corporate activities in authoritarian regimes and conflict zones; working conditions in the global supply chain; and business activities that affect economic and social rights. Areas of focus for the Business and Human Rights Program include:
Cooperation of companies with regimes and conflict parties and their relation to human rights violations
As part of a broader social movement, ECCHR regards it as its obligation to not only take legal action against human rights violations but also to educate coming generations of human rights lawyers. ECCHR's Education Program offers participants a platform for the theory and practice of international human rights law. It aims to develop and further a critical analysis of contemporary issues of law and society. ECCHR claims that since 2008 about 400 human rights lawyers from more than 40 countries have been volunteers or trainees at the organisation. ECCHR organizes conferences and other public events, conducts media outreach, and publishes web-based and print reports and communications to inform the public about grave human rights violations worldwide.
