Legal Program
Access to justice is a cornerstone of the work for human rights at the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights and of the protection of human rights everywhere. At Race and Equality, supporting our civil society partners and ensuring access to justice in the face of human rights violations represents a multi-faceted approach.
Our team includes lawyers specialized in international human rights and with vast experience in litigation before mechanisms for the protection of human rights at the regional and international level.
Emergency legal response
When Race and Equality’s partners face urgent situations in which their fundamental rights are being violated and their security is being threatened, our Legal Team steps in. If our partners are unable to prepare documentation to submit on their own to international human rights protection mechanisms, we take the lead to ensure the timely filing of requests for protective orders and interventions from the UN or the OAS. In this way, Race and Equality supports our partners in denouncing the injustices being perpetrated against them and raising the alert for the international community about what is happening.
Strategic litigation
In coordination with our civil society partners and as part of Race and Equality’s goal to support their work to achieve long-term, sustainable and structural changes that will result in greater human rights guarantees, we engage in strategic litigation. Cases are carefully selected and documented to be submitted as petitions before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Special Procedures, or United Nations Treaty Bodies.
