HREA: Human Rights Litigation

The Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international NGO that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of educational materials and programming; and community-building through on-line technologies.

The HREA is conducting a distant learning course on Human Rights Litigation from 3 February to 20 April 2010.

This distance learning course provides participants with knowledge of the concept, types, venues and strategies of human rights litigation. It focuses on strategic litigation and legal aid both internationally and domestically, and explores a variety of strategies: issue or group oriented litigation, community based services, legal clinics, NGO or law firm resourced actions and others. Participants are familiarised with court ordered structural relief, as well as with conventional victim-centered legal remedies. Non-litigation strategies to maximise the chances of winning cases and to ensure the effective enforcement of decisions too are considered.

The course places impact litigation in its social and institutional context exploring issues of its legitimacy, as well as the ethics and accountability of human rights lawyering. In the last part it highlights litigation for the vindication of several groups of substantive rights, including economic and social rights, freedom from torture, equality and asylum. Participants will be provided with examples from various jurisdictions in the world illustrating strategic human rights litigation in practice.

Course outline

• Week 1: Concept of Strategic Human Rights Litigation
• Week 2: Types of Human Rights Litigation Strategies
• Week 3: International Litigation – Mechanisms and Remedies
• Week 4: Transnational and Domestic Litigation – Mechanisms and Remedies
• Week 5: "Open week"
• Week 6: Strategising in Practice
• Week 7: Ethics of Human Rights Litigation
• Week 8: Challenges and Obstacles to Human Rights Litigation
• Week 9: Advocacy - Maximising the Effectiveness of Litigation
• Week 10: Strategic Litigation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Week 11: Strategic Litigation in Cases of Discrimination

Who should apply

The course is particularly intended for legal professionals -- lawyers, staff working in legal advice centres, lawyers workings at NGOs. It is assumed that participants are familiar with the relevant human rights standards. Candidates should have a good written command of English and have high competence and comfort with computer and Internet use.

Costs: The course tuition fee is €525 for residents of OECD countries* and €200 for permanent residents of non-OECD countries. Tuition for auditors is €200 for residents of OECD countries and € 70 for permanent residents of non-OECD countries. There are no scholarships available for this course.

Application Forms: Click Here.

Dates: 3 February to 20 April 2010

Application deadline: 1 December 2009

For more information, click here.