Together with our global network, we enforce human rights and make injustice visible. In court and society.
Together with our global network, we enforce human rights and make injustice visible. In court and society.
The production of cars by VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz reportedly involves the processing of raw materials and components manufactured under conditions of forced labor in the Uyghur Region. ECCHR has now filed a complaint under the German Supply Chain Act with the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), as all three companies have thus far failed to demonstrate that they are responding to the risk of forced labor in supplier facilities in the region.
Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been sentenced to death in Iran, is a German citizen. For this reason alone, the German judiciary is obligated to investigate this case. This is why Sharmahd's daughter, with ECCHR’s support, has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor (GBA) against eight high-ranking members of the Iranian judiciary and intelligence service. Beyond the scope of the Sharmahd case, the complaint is intended to trigger structural proceedings and further investigations by the GBA into Iran.
We seek justice for – and with – those around the world who are affected by torture, exploitation and fortressed borders.
ECCHR is a non-profit organization. One hundred percent of our budget comes from donations and grants. Help put an end to impunity for human rights violations!
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, incidents of sexual violence by Russian troops have continued to increase. In the case of a survivor from a Ukrainian village near Kyiv, Russian forces occupied her house, shot her husband and raped her several times. Now, ECCHR, together with the Ukrainian Legal Advisery Group, has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor.
Relatives and a survivor of a deadly airstrike in Yemen, carried out by the Saudi-led military coalition using bombs made by RWM Italia S.p.A., have submitted a complaint against Italy with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The ECtHR now has a unique opportunity to ensure access to justice for victims of war crimes involving European weapons in unlawful Yemeni airstrikes.
ECCHR’s human rights work encompasses much more than the mere application of applicable law. We want to break up unjust power relationships, initiate social and political debates, and thus contribute to social justice worldwide.
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We conceive of the collaboration with artists as an opportunity to reach people, to hone their perceptions of injustice and to alter their perspectives. We also believe that art can provide a platform for those affected by injustice to make their voices heard – and to address conflicts collectively.
Kunduz
On 4 September 2009, two US fighter jets, acting on the orders of German Army Colonel Georg Klein, bombed a large group of people and two tanker trucks on a sandbar in the Kunduz River in Afghanistan. More than 100 people were killed or injured. ECCHR is assisting Abdul Hanan, a father who lost his two sons, aged eight and twelve, in the attack.
Torture
The case of Khaled El Masri is one of the best documented extraordinary renditions by the CIA. Several inquiry commissions took up this case and a number of lawsuits were filed before different national and regional courts.
Kunduz
On 4 September 2009, two US fighter jets, acting on the orders of German Army Colonel Georg Klein, bombed a large group of people and two tanker trucks on a sandbar in the Kunduz River in Afghanistan. More than 100 people were killed or injured. ECCHR is assisting Abdul Hanan, a father who lost his two sons, aged eight and twelve, in the attack.
Pushbacks
Germany and Greece concluded the so-called Seehofer Deal in 2018. The administrative agreement named after German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer says: migrants and refugees who have already applied for asylum in Greece and arrive to Germany via Austria should be refused entry and returned to Greece within 48 hours. This is what happened to Syrian asylum seeker HT.
Hotspots
According to ECCHR’s analysis of a series of admissibility interviews conducted on the Greek Islands, EASO fails to respect core standards of fairness. The interviews do not permit a fair assessment of cases and do not give room for a thorough investigation of vulnerability.
Pushbacks
In December 2021, the European Court of Human Rights communicated eight cases from a total of 47 applicants, filed against Greece between January and December 2021. ECCHR and its partners PRO ASYL and Refugee Support Aegean have submitted a third party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in July 2022 in all eight cases regarding Greece’s systematic human rights violations at its borders.
Trade unionists
ECCHR filed a criminal complaint against Nestlé and some of its top managers in 2012. The complaint accuses the managers of being in breach of their obligations by failing to prevent crimes of Colombian paramilitary groups and failing to adequately protect trade unionists from these crimes.
Pushbacks
Croatia is obliged to account for its pushback practice to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) before the European Court of Human Rights. The court accepted the individual complaints brought by three Syrian refugees. The applicants were denied any individual assessment as they were summarily and collectively expelled in October 2018 at the border between Croatia and BiH.
Pushbacks
When Europe sealed its borders in 2016, a group of over 1.500 refugees stranded in dire conditions in the informal refugee camp of Idomeni in Greece, walked into North Macedonia to find safety. Together they were intercepted, circled, boarded into vans, driven to the border and forced back by armed officers through a hole in the fence.
Pushbacks
ND and NT crossed the border fence structure in Melilla and entered Spain in August 2014. The Spanish Guardia Civil apprehended them, along with approximately 70 other individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who also had climbed the fences. They were immediately “pushed back” to Morocco – without access to any legal procedures or protection.
Kunduz
On 4 September 2009, two US fighter jets, acting on the orders of German Army Colonel Georg Klein, bombed a large group of people and two tanker trucks on a sandbar in the Kunduz River in Afghanistan. More than 100 people were killed or injured. ECCHR is assisting Abdul Hanan, a father who lost his two sons, aged eight and twelve, in the attack.
Military dictatorship
In the Mercedes Benz case ECCHR is assisting relatives of trade unionists who disappeared from a Mercedes Benz plant in Buenos Aires. A senior manager at the company stands accused of involvement in the disappearances and murders of trade union activists carried out by Argentine security forces.
Military dictatorship
More than 30,000 people fell victim to the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). The victims included around one hundred people with German citizenship or German roots, among them Elisabeth Käsemann.
Military dictatorship
Germany must not be a safe haven for those who commit dictatorship crimes. The former Argentine military officer Luis K is wanted in Argentina for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the country’s military dictatorship (1976-83). As a German citizen, he cannot be extradited. However, the German judiciary may well investigate and prosecute him.
Textile industry
On the initiative of ECCHR the Hamburg Consumer Protection Agency filed an unfair competition complaint against the German discount retailer Lidl for claims made in the company's advertisements about fair working conditions in their supplier chain.
Textile industry
A few months before the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Dhaka, TÜV Rheinland audited the production facilities at textile producer Phantom Apparel Ltd as part of a social audit. ECCHR argues that TÜV Rheinland ignored professional auditing standards.
Repression
The systematic repression of the Belarusian population qualifies as a crime against humanity. In Germany, the Federal Public Prosecutor can act on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction when violations of international law have been committed.
Forced labor
Alarming reports about torture, re-education camps, and forced labor in the Xinjiang region in China have increased in frequency since 2017. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government systematically persecutes the Muslim Uyghur minority in the country’s northwestern province. Tens of thousands are allegedly forced to harvest cotton and sew clothes – which are also sold on the European market.
Supply chains
VW, BMW and Mercedes Benz use raw materials and components for the production of their cars, which are mined and produced under forced labor of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. ECCHR has now filed a complaint against the three companies with the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).
Police violence
In 2013, ECCHR submitted a criminal complaint against a German manager of timber company Danzer Group. He is accused of aiding and abetting, through omission, the crimes of rape, grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment and arson in the DR Congo.
Pushbacks
Germany and Greece concluded the so-called Seehofer Deal in 2018. The administrative agreement named after German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer says: migrants and refugees who have already applied for asylum in Greece and arrive to Germany via Austria should be refused entry and returned to Greece within 48 hours. This is what happened to Syrian asylum seeker HT.
Supply chains
10 Years after the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory, in which more than 1,100 people died, numerous companies have yet to sign either the Bangladesh Accord (the accord on building and fire safety in Bangladesh) or its successor, the International Accord. The accord is considered to be the only functional mechanism for the improvement of workplace safety worldwide. Based on the German Supply Chain Act, which came into force in January 2023, employees filed the first complaint with the German Federal Office of Economic Affairs and Export Control in April 2024.
Supply chains
Businesses’ conduct, whether by action or omission, can cause, contribute to or be linked with a variety of human rights abuses in their own operations or their business relationships, including global value chains. ECCHR views it as essential that companies be legally obliged to adequately address human rights risks – and for them to be held accountable for possible damages.
Paris Agreement
Governments are failing to do what is necessary to counteract climate change. Through their inaction, they violate human rights, as well as obstruct the chances of ensuring a future that is worth living for present and future generations on earth.
War crimes
In the course of a military action in Gaza in 2014, Israel’s armed forces killed, among others, members of the German-Palestinian Kilani family. For seven years, ECCHR and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have attempted to seek justice on behalf of the bereaved son from Germany, Ramsis Kilani, for these attacks. In August 2021, the German Federal Public Prosecutor decided not to initiate proceedings.
Pesticides
Bayer CropScience sells highly toxic pesticides in India. The company fails to ensure that consumers are adequately informed of both the dangers of pesticides and the requisite protective measures.
Cooperation Forensic Architecture
The 18 minute video from Forensic Architecture details the lack of stairs, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and fire alarms in the factory. Inadequate fire safety measures at the company, a supplier for the German clothes retailer KiK, led to the agonizing deaths of 258 factory workers in the blaze.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Training & Co-learning
With the help of the Bertha Foundation ECCHR has the capacity to offer two-year fellowships to particularly qualified candidates from our alumn*. Bertha Justice Fellows are part of the global Bertha Justice Network comprised of organizations whose goal is to enforce human rights by legal means.
(Post)Colonial Crimes
In the early 20th century, today’s Namibia was a German colony. The Namibian population was massively and systematically discriminated against. Oppression, violence and land grabbing were widespread. ECCHR is working to address colonial crimes in Namibia and Germany’s colonial past.
(Post)Colonial Crimes
In colonial times, Germans robbed people in the colonies of their land, their cultural artefacts and their lives. And they stole their family members – in the form of bones and other body parts. They brought them to Europe for racist research purposes. Even today tens of thousands of so-called Ancestors/Human Remains are stored or displayed in German museum archives, universities and private collections.
Arms exports
In October 2016, an airstrike – alleged to have been carried out by the Saudi-led military coalition – struck a civilian home in the village of Deir Al-Hajari in northwest Yemen. The intentional directing of attacks against the civilian population amounts to war crimes. ECCHR is taking legal action against this.
Arms exports
In February 2019, the Regional Court in Stuttgart (Germany) convicted employees of the arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch in a case concerning the shipment of rifles to Mexico. The court investigated whether, between 2006 and 2009, Heckler & Koch illegally sold Type G36 rifles to the Mexican police.
Textile industry
Transnational corporations responsibilities also extend to the working conditions in their subsidiary and supplier companies abroad. This position is supported by survivors and relatives of victims of the fatal fire at the Ali Enterprises textile factory in Karachi. Together with ECCHR, they filed a legal action for compensation against KiK.
NATO
The Varvarin court proceedings in Germany concern the bombing of a bridge in rural Serbia as part of the NATO Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo war. Since 1999, those affected by the attack have been seeking compensation from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Armed conflict
Since the final stage of the Sri Lankan civil war, ECCHR has been working to ensure that high-ranking military personnel and (former) members of the Sri Lankan government and security forces are prosecuted for their role in war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual violence.
Apartheid
ECCHR is supporting the lawsuit filed by South African victims of the apartheid regime against eight European and US corporations (among them Daimbler and Rheinmetall). The plaintiffs accuse the companies of either directly committing human rights violations in South Africa, or of facilitating and supporting state-sponsored human rights violations.
Infrastructure
In 2010, those affected by the construction of the Merowe dam in North Sudan filed criminal complaints against Lahmeyer employees. The German company played a major role in the construction. Over 4,700 families lost their belongings and their means of subsistence.
Torture
The case of Khaled El Masri is one of the best documented extraordinary renditions by the CIA. Several inquiry commissions took up this case and a number of lawsuits were filed before different national and regional courts.
Torture
ECCHR has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor calling for investigations into Gina Haspel’s role in the torture of detainees at a CIA secret prison in Thailand in 2002. Haspel was appointed director of the CIA by President Donald Trump in May 2018.
Surveillance
British-German surveillance technology provider Gamma infringed on its human rights obligations with products such as “state trojan” FinFisher. This was confirmed by the UK’s OECD National Contact Point. In 2013, ECCHR submitted a complaint against Gamma and German firm Trovicor.
Arab Spring
ECCHR has appealed to five UN special rapporteurs on behalf of two injured demonstrators who were shot by security forces during the Egyptian protests in spring 2011. ECCHR is calling for adequate support to be given to the men and their families.
Arab Spring
ECCHR has appealed to five UN special rapporteurs on behalf of two injured demonstrators who were shot by security forces during the Egyptian protests in spring 2011. ECCHR is calling for adequate support to be given to the men and their families.
Pushbacks
Severely beaten, secretly detained and forcibly returned from Greece six times, Parvin A filed a complaint at the UN Human Rights Committee for multiple violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Her case exposes the systematic Greek practice of pushbacks owing to digital evidence she was able to preserve from inside detention and at the border which was analyzed as part of a Forensic Architecture investigation.
Pesticides
Research by ECCHR showed: Syngenta’s pesticide Gramoxone – which is banned in many countries including throughout the EU – is used on plantations in Indonesia and the Philippines with almost no protective measures.
Pesticides
ECCHR and its partner organizations urged the FAO/WHO in an open letter and monitoring report to implement urgently needed changes to effectively address the widespread mismanagement of pesticides worldwide.
Pushbacks
A Rohingya child refugee faced repeated beatings by Croatian border officers, had his belongings burnt and his shoes confiscated before numerous forced expulsions, including a “chain” pushback from Slovenia.
Mining
Mining projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America often give rise to environmental problems and social conflict. Local communities near the Tintaya Antapaccay mine in Peru have raised concerns about heavy metals polluting the water and associated health problems. The mine is run by a Glencore subsidiary.
Torture
As a signatory of the Convention against Torture, the US is obliged to prosecute for these crimes. Nevertheless, there is evidence concerning the torture program after 11 September 2001 with a particular focus on the liability of high ranking US officials, including former President Bush.
Military dictatorship
In 2012, ECCHR submitted a legal brief in the case relating to the unlawful detention and torture of workers of the company Minera Aguilar SA during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983).
Military dictatorship
In 2011, ECCHR submitted an amicus curiae brief in the criminal investigation examining sugar company Ledesma’s liability for human rights violations during the Argentine military dictatorship.
Military dictatorship
In the Mercedes Benz case ECCHR is assisting relatives of trade unionists who disappeared from a Mercedes Benz plant in Buenos Aires. A senior manager at the company stands accused of involvement in the disappearances and murders of trade union activists carried out by Argentine security forces.
Military dictatorship
More than 30,000 people fell victim to the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). The victims included around one hundred people with German citizenship or German roots, among them Elisabeth Käsemann.
Military dictatorship
In October 2010, ECCHR, along with Theo van Boven filed two amicus curiae briefs before Argentinean courts. The briefs support four different cases in the trials regarding sexualviolence in detention centers during the military dictatorship.
Military dictatorship
Germany must not be a safe haven for those who commit dictatorship crimes. The former Argentine military officer Luis K is wanted in Argentina for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the country’s military dictatorship (1976-83). As a German citizen, he cannot be extradited. However, the German judiciary may well investigate and prosecute him.
Social security
Since 2008, Argentina’s pension scheme has been in state hands – as it should remain. Social security is a human right that governments must guarantee, and cannot be secondary to corporate profit. ECCHR and Argentine partner organizations submitted an amicus curiae brief in ICSID procedures to point out Argentina’s human rights obligation to guarantee social security for its citizens.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Torture
Bahrain-born British citizen Jaafar al-Hasabi submitted a criminal complaint in Dublin against Bahraini Attorney General Ali Bin al-Buainain. Al-Hasabi was detained and tortured in Bahrain in 2010. Since then, he tries to bring those responsible to court.
Torture
Torture of detained members of the opposition: London High Court accepted in 2014 that Bahraini Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is not immune from prosecution. This decision opened the door to an investigation by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team.
Arab Spring
ECCHR sent an advisory opinion to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. The statement seeks to draw the commission’s attention to the cases of two persons who suffered severe injuries when they were shot at by Bahraini security forces before being forcibly removed from hospital, imprisoned, and abused.
Surveillance
British-German surveillance technology provider Gamma infringed on its human rights obligations with products such as “state trojan” FinFisher. This was confirmed by the UK’s OECD National Contact Point. In 2013, ECCHR submitted a complaint against Gamma and German firm Trovicor.
Torture
Bahrain-born British citizen Jaafar al-Hasabi submitted a criminal complaint in Dublin against Bahraini Attorney General Ali Bin al-Buainain. Al-Hasabi was detained and tortured in Bahrain in 2010. Since then, he tries to bring those responsible to court.
Torture
Torture of detained members of the opposition: London High Court accepted in 2014 that Bahraini Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is not immune from prosecution. This decision opened the door to an investigation by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team.
Cooperation Forensic Architecture
The 18 minute video from Forensic Architecture details the lack of stairs, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and fire alarms in the factory. Inadequate fire safety measures at the company, a supplier for the German clothes retailer KiK, led to the agonizing deaths of 258 factory workers in the blaze.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Textile industry
On the initiative of ECCHR the Hamburg Consumer Protection Agency filed an unfair competition complaint against the German discount retailer Lidl for claims made in the company's advertisements about fair working conditions in their supplier chain.
Textile industry
A few months before the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Dhaka, TÜV Rheinland audited the production facilities at textile producer Phantom Apparel Ltd as part of a social audit. ECCHR argues that TÜV Rheinland ignored professional auditing standards.
Supply chains
10 Years after the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory, in which more than 1,100 people died, numerous companies have yet to sign either the Bangladesh Accord (the accord on building and fire safety in Bangladesh) or its successor, the International Accord. The accord is considered to be the only functional mechanism for the improvement of workplace safety worldwide. Based on the German Supply Chain Act, which came into force in January 2023, employees filed the first complaint with the German Federal Office of Economic Affairs and Export Control in April 2024.
Textile industry
On the initiative of ECCHR the Hamburg Consumer Protection Agency filed an unfair competition complaint against the German discount retailer Lidl for claims made in the company's advertisements about fair working conditions in their supplier chain.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Repression
The systematic repression of the Belarusian population qualifies as a crime against humanity. In Germany, the Federal Public Prosecutor can act on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction when violations of international law have been committed.
Conversations
Looking back at our 2021 event series: Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending, but what does this entail during times of profound, global transition? Can we use today’s unprecedented, multiple crises as an opportunity? And what alliances and strategies do we need to effectively include decolonial, feminist and environmental perspectives?
Cooperation Academy of Fine Arts
The symposium Memory and Justice at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin created a platform for interdisciplinary debates – spanning various epochs and regions – on legal proceedings, inquiries and other state responses to grave crimes and the extent of civil society participation in these processes.
Cooperation Academy of Fine Arts
The development of international law is closely interwoven with European colonialization. Colonial violence was frequently covered up and injustice developed into a legal system. With the Koloniales Erbe/Colonial Repercussions event series, ECCHR examined the structures of colonial power relations, which continue to impact on science, art and society today.
Networks & Exchange
Since ECCHR’s in 2008 nearly 400 young human rights lawyers from more than 40 countries have participated in our Critical Legal Training. Together they constitute our alumni group, and their numbers are now into the hundreds.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR’s Critical Legal Training offers participants a unique platform for the theory and practice of international human rights law. We aim to develop and further a well-founded and critical analysis of the most pressing contemporary issues of law and society.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
In March 2017, ECCHR organized an expert workshop at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Together with professors, emergent legal researchers and practitioners discussed questions of corporate liability for human rights abuses abroad. A result of the workshop was the volume "Die Durchsetzung menschenrechtlicher Sorgfaltspflichten von Unternehmen" (Nomos).
Networks & Exchange
Networks and partnerships excel when expertise and practical experience are shared. With this in mind, ECCHR regularly hosts workshops and exchanges on transnational human rights litigation.
Art & human rights
Since its establishment, ECCHR has been working with artists from all over the world. At our office, we regularly exhibit work by artists who, like us, protest against human rights abuses – be it the crimes of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the unlawful border regime at the US-Mexican border or the exploitation of Palestinian migrant workers in Israel.
Research & Academia
The anthology Dekoloniale Rechtskritik und Rechtspraxis, which will be published by Nomos Verlag in August 2020, is the first volume to collect fundamental texts on decolonial legal theory. Interdisciplinary theoretical approaches by scholars such as Antony Anghie, Martti Koskenniemi, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Makau Mutua are complied in German for the first time.
Cooperation museums/theaters
How do we bring about social change? Since its inception, ECCHR has always attempted to find new answers to this question. Most often, we take the legal route – and attempt to draw attention to both past and existing injustice through specifically selected cases. Yet, this cannot be enough, which is why ECCHR continues to collaborate with cultural institutions such as museums and theaters.
Cooperation Forensic Architecture
In search of new ideas for the creative and public enforcement of human rights, we founded Investigative Commons in 2020. The multidisciplinary cooperation is a result of years of collaboration between ECCHR and the research agency Forensic Architecture.
Military dictatorship
Mercedes Benz in Argentina, Volkswagen in Brazil. Economic players, including multinational automobile companies, were beneficiaries of the military dictatorships in Latin America. A number of cases also point to complicity in the arrest and torture of trade unionists.
Dam failure
In January 2019, a dam burst at an iron ore mine near the small Brazilian town of Brumadinho, killing 272 people. Toxic sludge contaminated large sections of the Paraopeba River, poisoning the drinking water of thousands of people. Only four months earlier, the Brazilian subsidiary of German certifier TÜV SÜD confirmed the dam’s safety, despite known safety risks.
Dam failure
In January 2019, a dam burst at an iron ore mine near the small Brazilian town of Brumadinho, killing 272 people. Toxic sludge contaminated large sections of the Paraopeba River, poisoning the drinking water of thousands of people. Only four months earlier, the Brazilian subsidiary of German certifier TÜV SÜD confirmed the dam’s safety, despite known safety risks.
Surveillance
The Munich-based companies FinFisher GmbH, FinFisher Labs GmbH and Elaman GmbH are accused of selling the surveillance software FinSpy to Turkey without the German government’s permission. When repressive states use surveillance technology, this has all too often led to imprisonment and torture. Following a criminal complaint from ECCHR and its partner organizations, the prosecutor’s office in Munich has opened investigations into the case. IIn May 2023, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against four managers of the corporate group.
Pushbacks
Bulgaria’s systematic expulsion of refugees and migrants to Turkey without an examination of the individual risk of ill-treatment violates the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in July 2021.
Colonia Dignidad
Colonia Dignidad, founded by a German named Paul Schäfer in 1961, was a fortress-like German settlement in central Chile where grave human rights violations were committed over several decades. The former doctor of the Colonia Dignidad, Hartmut Hopp, should face prison in Germany.
Colonia Dignidad
Colonia Dignidad, founded by a German named Paul Schäfer in 1961, was a fortress-like German settlement in central Chile where grave human rights violations were committed over several decades. The former doctor of the Colonia Dignidad, Hartmut Hopp, should face prison in Germany.
Forced labor
Alarming reports about torture, re-education camps, and forced labor in the Xinjiang region in China have increased in frequency since 2017. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government systematically persecutes the Muslim Uyghur minority in the country’s northwestern province. Tens of thousands are allegedly forced to harvest cotton and sew clothes – which are also sold on the European market.
Supply chains
VW, BMW and Mercedes Benz use raw materials and components for the production of their cars, which are mined and produced under forced labor of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. ECCHR has now filed a complaint against the three companies with the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Forced labor
Alarming reports about torture, re-education camps, and forced labor in the Xinjiang region in China have increased in frequency since 2017. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government systematically persecutes the Muslim Uyghur minority in the country’s northwestern province. Tens of thousands are allegedly forced to harvest cotton and sew clothes – which are also sold on the European market.
Training & Co-learning
With the help of the Bertha Foundation ECCHR has the capacity to offer two-year fellowships to particularly qualified candidates from our alumn*. Bertha Justice Fellows are part of the global Bertha Justice Network comprised of organizations whose goal is to enforce human rights by legal means.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
RWE
In December 2019, the Dutch parliament passed a law to phase out coal. With this, the country on the North Sea wants to ban the burning of coal for power generation from 2030, also in order to comply with its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement. Among other things, the law obligated the energy company RWE to stop burning coal at its Eemshaven power plant by the end of the decade. RWE therefore sued the Netherlands for 1.4 billion euros in damages.
Torture
ECCHR supports claimants in a case of corporate crime in front of the US Supreme Court. The proceedings are a continuation of the high-profile case taken against Shell. The claimants argue that Shell, through its Nigerian subsidiary, aided and abetted crimes, including torture and extrajudicial executions.
Police violence
In 2013, ECCHR submitted a criminal complaint against a German manager of timber company Danzer Group. He is accused of aiding and abetting, through omission, the crimes of rape, grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment and arson in the DR Congo.
Armed conflict
The Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart handed down convictions in the trial of two Rwandan leaders of the Hutu militia group FDLR, Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni. The FDLR are alleged to have utilized sexualized violence against the Congolese civilian population and to have in numerous cases plundered, killed and inflicted grievous bodily injuries.
Research & Academia
The criminal investigation into Lumumba’s assassination is part of a broader context of structural impunity for the crimes committed by European colonial powers during decolonization. While the long-term effects of colonization persist, direct accountability is rarely possible.
Police violence
In 2013, ECCHR submitted a criminal complaint against a German manager of timber company Danzer Group. He is accused of aiding and abetting, through omission, the crimes of rape, grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment and arson in the DR Congo.
Armed conflict
The Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart handed down convictions in the trial of two Rwandan leaders of the Hutu militia group FDLR, Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni. The FDLR are alleged to have utilized sexualized violence against the Congolese civilian population and to have in numerous cases plundered, killed and inflicted grievous bodily injuries.
Arms exports
In February 2019, the Regional Court in Stuttgart (Germany) convicted employees of the arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch in a case concerning the shipment of rifles to Mexico. The court investigated whether, between 2006 and 2009, Heckler & Koch illegally sold Type G36 rifles to the Mexican police.
Pushbacks
Germany and Greece concluded the so-called Seehofer Deal in 2018. The administrative agreement named after German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer says: migrants and refugees who have already applied for asylum in Greece and arrive to Germany via Austria should be refused entry and returned to Greece within 48 hours. This is what happened to Syrian asylum seeker HT.
Hotspots
According to ECCHR’s analysis of a series of admissibility interviews conducted on the Greek Islands, EASO fails to respect core standards of fairness. The interviews do not permit a fair assessment of cases and do not give room for a thorough investigation of vulnerability.
Pushbacks
Severely beaten, secretly detained and forcibly returned from Greece six times, Parvin A filed a complaint at the UN Human Rights Committee for multiple violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Her case exposes the systematic Greek practice of pushbacks owing to digital evidence she was able to preserve from inside detention and at the border which was analyzed as part of a Forensic Architecture investigation.
Pushbacks
In December 2021, the European Court of Human Rights communicated eight cases from a total of 47 applicants, filed against Greece between January and December 2021. ECCHR and its partners PRO ASYL and Refugee Support Aegean have submitted a third party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in July 2022 in all eight cases regarding Greece’s systematic human rights violations at its borders.
Pushbacks
Germany and Greece concluded the so-called Seehofer Deal in 2018. The administrative agreement named after German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer says: migrants and refugees who have already applied for asylum in Greece and arrive to Germany via Austria should be refused entry and returned to Greece within 48 hours. This is what happened to Syrian asylum seeker HT.
Torture
The Syrian government led by president Bashar al-Assad is responsible for systematic and widespread torture. This is why in March 2017, ECCHR, seven Syrian torture survivors and lawyers Anwar al-Bunni and Mazen Darwish submitted the first criminal complaint against high-level officials of the Syrian military intelligence service to the German Federal Prosecutor.
Armed conflict
Eleven Syrian former employees of the French company Lafarge submitted a criminal complaint against Lafarge in 2016. By maintaining business relations with the terrorist group ISIS in Syria, the company may have contributed to the financing of the group, thereby making them complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Torture
In November 2017, ECCHR and nine Syrian women and men filed a criminal complaint concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes with the German Federal Public Prosecutor. The complaint is directed against ten high-ranking officials of the National Security Office and Air Force Intelligence, among them Jamil Hassan, its former head.
Torture
In Syria, the word Saydnaya has become a synonym for unimaginable torture, systematic degradation and mass executions. Together with four individuals who survived the torture in Saydnaya ECCHR has filed in Germany a criminal complaint against seven high-ranking Syrian military officials.
Torture
The group around the former Syrian military police employee “Caesar” took for the first legal action by filing together with ECCHR a criminal complaint against senior officials from the Syrian intelligence services and the military police concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Torture
The path to justice for war crimes and torture in Syria also leads through Europe. After Germany, Sweden and France, Austrian authorities have initiated investigations into the Syrian intelligence services’ role in systematic torture. This followed a criminal complaint submitted by 16 Syrians, ECCHR, and its partners to the public prosecutor in Vienna in May 2018.
Surveillance technology
The Syrian intelligence services have been collecting without cause information about political opponents, members of the opposition and human rights activists. Spying often goes hand in hand with torture. Software from Western corporations may have played a role in the surveillance. In order to address this, transnational investigations have to be initiated.
Torture
(Also) Sweden can play an important role in the fight against impunity for turture in Syria. This is why, in February 2019, nine torture survivors submitted a criminal complaint in Stockholm against senior officials in the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – including for crimes against humanity.
Torture
The first trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started in Germany in April 2020. The main defendant was Anwar R, a former official at the General Intelligence Directorate in Syrian President Assad’s government.
Torture
In order to end impunity for state torture in Syria, five Syrian torture survivors filed a criminal complaint in November 2019 in Norway. The complaint is the next step in a series of criminal complaints against 17 high-ranking officials of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government that have been submitted in Germany, Austria and Sweden.
Torture
In April 2020, the first criminal trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started in Germany. ECCHR supported 17 Syriacan find our reports on the proceedings.
Sexual violence
German authorities must finally prosecute sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Syrian detention centers for what it is: a crime against humanity. This is the aim of a criminal complaint that seven survivors of Bashar al-Assad’s torture system submitted in June 2020 to the German Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe.
Crimes against humanity
In June 2020, the German police arrested Alaa M, who has since been held in detention awaiting trial. The reason: strong suspicion of complicity in crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian regime since 2011. Approximately one year after his arrest, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed charges against M, a former Syrian doctor who allegedly tortured, killed and sexually abused people in military hospitals.
Torture
ECCHR sumbitted an amici curiae brief in order to support the compensation claim in the Arar case. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was arrested and abducted by US officials in 2002 and brought to Syria. During his one-year detention he suffered torture and was imprisoned under inhumane conditions.
Pakistan
ECCHR supported the case of the German victim of a drone strike in Pakistan, Bünyamin E. According to ECCHR’s examinations, the case raises a number of serious doubts as to the application and interpretation of the law and shows insufficient investigations.
Cooperation Forensic Architecture
The 18 minute video from Forensic Architecture details the lack of stairs, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and fire alarms in the factory. Inadequate fire safety measures at the company, a supplier for the German clothes retailer KiK, led to the agonizing deaths of 258 factory workers in the blaze.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Textile industry
Italian audit company RINA certified a Ali Enterprises, Pakistan, building shortly before a fire broke out in the factory. The certificate failed to guarantee high standards of security. ECCHR and an international coalition of human rights organizations filed an OECD complaint against RINA in September 2018.
Pakistan
ECCHR supported the case of the German victim of a drone strike in Pakistan, Bünyamin E. According to ECCHR’s examinations, the case raises a number of serious doubts as to the application and interpretation of the law and shows insufficient investigations.
Death Penalty
Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been sentenced to death in Iran, is a German citizen. For this reason alone, the German judiciary is obligated to investigate this case. His daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, with ECCHR’s support, filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Public Prosecutor (GBA) in Karlsruhe on 21 June 2023.
Torture
The Syrian government led by president Bashar al-Assad is responsible for systematic and widespread torture. This is why in March 2017, ECCHR, seven Syrian torture survivors and lawyers Anwar al-Bunni and Mazen Darwish submitted the first criminal complaint against high-level officials of the Syrian military intelligence service to the German Federal Prosecutor.
Torture
In November 2017, ECCHR and nine Syrian women and men filed a criminal complaint concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes with the German Federal Public Prosecutor. The complaint is directed against ten high-ranking officials of the National Security Office and Air Force Intelligence, among them Jamil Hassan, its former head.
Torture
In Syria, the word Saydnaya has become a synonym for unimaginable torture, systematic degradation and mass executions. Together with four individuals who survived the torture in Saydnaya ECCHR has filed in Germany a criminal complaint against seven high-ranking Syrian military officials.
Torture
The group around the former Syrian military police employee “Caesar” took for the first legal action by filing together with ECCHR a criminal complaint against senior officials from the Syrian intelligence services and the military police concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Surveillance technology
The Syrian intelligence services have been collecting without cause information about political opponents, members of the opposition and human rights activists. Spying often goes hand in hand with torture. Software from Western corporations may have played a role in the surveillance. In order to address this, transnational investigations have to be initiated.
Sexual violence
German authorities must finally prosecute sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Syrian detention centers for what it is: a crime against humanity. This is the aim of a criminal complaint that seven survivors of Bashar al-Assad’s torture system submitted in June 2020 to the German Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe.
Repression
From 2017 to 2020, Chechen security forces arrested, imprisoned and tortured more than 150 people. Most were gay or bisexual men. The underlying issue is that, according to the government, these men do not correspond to the heterosexual image of masculinity in Chechnya. As a result, they are systematically persecuted.
Torture
Between 2004 and 2007, three complaints were filed in Germany and in France against members of the US Government, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and members of the military forces in connection with war crimes, torture and other criminal acts in the military prisons of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.
Torture
In December 2005, Wolfgang Kaleck, founder and general secretary of ECCHR, filed a criminal complaint against former Uzbek minister of interior Zakir Almatov, the Uzbek head of secret service Rustan Inojatov, and others to the Federal Public Prosecutor on behalf of eight Uzbek citizens because of torture and crimes against humanity.
Pakistan
ECCHR supported the case of the German victim of a drone strike in Pakistan, Bünyamin E. According to ECCHR’s examinations, the case raises a number of serious doubts as to the application and interpretation of the law and shows insufficient investigations.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Resource exploitation
Local residents of the Romanian region of Roșia Montană successfully opposed the building of a gold mine. Now, mining company Gabriel Resources is suing the Romanian state. ECCHR and its partner organizations have filed an amicus petition and are supporting the community so that their rights continue to be taken into consideration.
Torture
As a signatory of the Convention against Torture, the US is obliged to prosecute for these crimes. Nevertheless, there is evidence concerning the torture program after 11 September 2001 with a particular focus on the liability of high ranking US officials, including former President Bush.
Torture
The case of Khaled El Masri is one of the best documented extraordinary renditions by the CIA. Several inquiry commissions took up this case and a number of lawsuits were filed before different national and regional courts.
Yemen
In the summer of 2012, two members of the bin Ali Jaber family were killed and many survivors traumatized in a drone attack in the Yemeni village of Khashamir. The US Ramstein Air Base in Germany played an important role in the attack. The German government’s response has been to deny any knowledge of or responsibility for the death of these and other civilians from US drone attacks.
Arms exports
In October 2016, an airstrike – alleged to have been carried out by the Saudi-led military coalition – struck a civilian home in the village of Deir Al-Hajari in northwest Yemen. The intentional directing of attacks against the civilian population amounts to war crimes. ECCHR is taking legal action against this.
Arms exports
Despite countless attacks on civilian homes, markets, hospitals and schools – conducted by the Saudi/UAE-led military coalition – transnational companies based in Europe continued and continue to supply Saudi Arabia and the UAE with weapons, ammunition and logistical support. European government officials authorized the exports by granting licenses.
Arms exports
Attacks on residential buildings, markets and hospitals enabled by weapons exports to the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make French arms companies potentially complicit in war crimes against civilians in Yemen. ECCHR, together with Mwatana for Human Rights and Sherpa, therefore submitted a criminal complaint with the Paris Court in June 2022.
Yemen
In the summer of 2012, two members of the bin Ali Jaber family were killed and many survivors traumatized in a drone attack in the Yemeni village of Khashamir. The US Ramstein Air Base in Germany played an important role in the attack. The German government’s response has been to deny any knowledge of or responsibility for the death of these and other civilians from US drone attacks.
Yemen
In the summer of 2012, two members of the bin Ali Jaber family were killed and many survivors traumatized in a drone attack in the Yemeni village of Khashamir. The US Ramstein Air Base in Germany played an important role in the attack. The German government’s response has been to deny any knowledge of or responsibility for the death of these and other civilians from US drone attacks.
Paris Agreement
Governments are failing to do what is necessary to counteract climate change. Through their inaction, they violate human rights, as well as obstruct the chances of ensuring a future that is worth living for present and future generations on earth.
Supply chains
First France, then the Netherlands and Germany – more and more European countries are introducing supply chain laws because they have come to recognize that oil spills, theft of natural resources and forced labor do not arise from nowhere. They are the result of the ruthless practices of companies along their global value chains.
Migration
Migrants and refugees who are intercepted while crossing the Mediterranean and forcibly returned to Libyan detention centers are subjected to grave human rights abuses. Despite knowledge of these crimes, a number of EU actors have increased their cooperation with Libya. To push for an end to this impunity, we filed a communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2022 against 24 individuals, including 16 high-level decision makers from EU member states, the EU Commission, the EU border management agency FRONTEX, the European External Action Service EESA, and the EU military mission EUNAVOR MED.
Paris Agreement
Governments are failing to do what is necessary to counteract climate change. Through their inaction, they violate human rights, as well as obstruct the chances of ensuring a future that is worth living for present and future generations on earth.
Arms exports
Despite countless attacks on civilian homes, markets, hospitals and schools – conducted by the Saudi/UAE-led military coalition – transnational companies based in Europe continued and continue to supply Saudi Arabia and the UAE with weapons, ammunition and logistical support. European government officials authorized the exports by granting licenses.
Armed conflict
The Colombian state is denying women the protection against sexual crimes and access to justice that it is obliged to guarantee under national and international law. In response, ECCHR has submitted a criminal complaint against Colombia to the International Criminal Court.
Repression
Death threats, telephone surveillance, kidnapping of family members – the Colombian government uses a range of means in its efforts to intimidate human rights defenders. Since 2012, ECCHR has researched and documented the brutal repression of trade unionists, environmental activists or community leaders in Colombia.
Migration
Enslavement, arbitrary detention, sexual violence – these are just some of the serious crimes that migrants and refugees have been systematically subjected to in Libya. In order to bring an end to impunity for such crimes, ECCHR and its partners have, in cooperation with 14 survivors, filed a communication to the International Criminal Court.
Iraq
After more than six years, the International Criminal Court closed its preliminary examination of war crimes by UK forces in Iraq. The decision from December 2020 reveals systematic failures of international justice and proves, once again, that powerful actors can get away with torture.
Crimes against humanity
When a country is governed by an authoritarian regime, civil society is almost always placed under immense pressure. This was also the case in The Gambia from 1994 until 2017 during the rule of Yahya Jammeh. His armed security forces generated an atmosphere of fear, in which critical voices, along with civil society in general, were systematically intimidated. Journalists critical of the regime were arrested, while human rights defenders were persecuted, and LGBTQ individuals were threatened and tortured.
Crimes against humanity
When a country is governed by an authoritarian regime, civil society is almost always placed under immense pressure. This was also the case in The Gambia from 1994 until 2017 during the rule of Yahya Jammeh. His armed security forces generated an atmosphere of fear, in which critical voices, along with civil society in general, were systematically intimidated. Journalists critical of the regime were arrested, while human rights defenders were persecuted, and LGBTQ individuals were threatened and tortured.
War crimes
In the course of a military action in Gaza in 2014, Israel’s armed forces killed, among others, members of the German-Palestinian Kilani family. For seven years, ECCHR and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have attempted to seek justice on behalf of the bereaved son from Germany, Ramsis Kilani, for these attacks. In August 2021, the German Federal Public Prosecutor decided not to initiate proceedings.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
War crimes
In the course of a military action in Gaza in 2014, Israel’s armed forces killed, among others, members of the German-Palestinian Kilani family. For seven years, ECCHR and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have attempted to seek justice on behalf of the bereaved son from Germany, Ramsis Kilani, for these attacks. In August 2021, the German Federal Public Prosecutor decided not to initiate proceedings.
Pharmaceutical industry
In 2009, the States of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat launched a research project for the vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV). In 2010, the Government of India suspended the program as several violations of ethical standards were reported.
Pesticides
Research by ECCHR showed: Syngenta’s pesticide Gramoxone – which is banned in many countries including throughout the EU – is used on plantations in Indonesia and the Philippines with almost no protective measures.
Pesticides
Bayer CropScience sells highly toxic pesticides in India. The company fails to ensure that consumers are adequately informed of both the dangers of pesticides and the requisite protective measures.
Pesticides
ECCHR and its partner organizations urged the FAO/WHO in an open letter and monitoring report to implement urgently needed changes to effectively address the widespread mismanagement of pesticides worldwide.
Shrinking spaces and authoritarianism
In the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000 to facilitate state-sanctioned and corporate-led resource extraction, the rights of Adivasis (indigenous peoples of India) are systematically violated by powerful state, military and corporate actors.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Pharmaceutical industry
In 2009, the States of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat launched a research project for the vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV). In 2010, the Government of India suspended the program as several violations of ethical standards were reported.
Drones
Sigonella Air Base in Sicily, Italy, is considered of strategic importance for US drone operations in North Africa. ECCHR has filed requests to access information regarding US drones located at Sigonella according to the Italian Freedom of Information Act and filed a criminal complaint against the air base commander.
Torture
ECCHR supports claimants in a case of corporate crime in front of the US Supreme Court. The proceedings are a continuation of the high-profile case taken against Shell. The claimants argue that Shell, through its Nigerian subsidiary, aided and abetted crimes, including torture and extrajudicial executions.
Indigenous rights
Border Timbers Limited, a company owned by European investors, challenged the Zimbabwe government’s expropriation of its timber plantations in national and international forums. Indigenous communities, supported by ECCHR, have tried to assert their rights in these proceedings.
Guantánamo
In March 2009, ECCHR partner lawyer Gonzalo Boye filed a criminal complaint against six former US officials of the Bush administration regarding their accountability for violations of international law, including war crimes and torture. The US officials became known as the “Bush Six.”
Torture
Between 2004 and 2007, three complaints were filed in Germany and in France against members of the US Government, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and members of the military forces in connection with war crimes, torture and other criminal acts in the military prisons of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.
Torture
ECCHR sumbitted an amici curiae brief in order to support the compensation claim in the Arar case. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was arrested and abducted by US officials in 2002 and brought to Syria. During his one-year detention he suffered torture and was imprisoned under inhumane conditions.
Torture
ECCHR has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor calling for investigations into Gina Haspel’s role in the torture of detainees at a CIA secret prison in Thailand in 2002. Haspel was appointed director of the CIA by President Donald Trump in May 2018.
Pharmaceutical industry
In 2009, the States of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat launched a research project for the vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV). In 2010, the Government of India suspended the program as several violations of ethical standards were reported.
Armed conflict
Since the final stage of the Sri Lankan civil war, ECCHR has been working to ensure that high-ranking military personnel and (former) members of the Sri Lankan government and security forces are prosecuted for their role in war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual violence.
Surveillance
British-German surveillance technology provider Gamma infringed on its human rights obligations with products such as “state trojan” FinFisher. This was confirmed by the UK’s OECD National Contact Point. In 2013, ECCHR submitted a complaint against Gamma and German firm Trovicor.
Iraq
After more than six years, the International Criminal Court closed its preliminary examination of war crimes by UK forces in Iraq. The decision from December 2020 reveals systematic failures of international justice and proves, once again, that powerful actors can get away with torture.
Pesticides
Research by ECCHR showed: Syngenta’s pesticide Gramoxone – which is banned in many countries including throughout the EU – is used on plantations in Indonesia and the Philippines with almost no protective measures.
Climate change
The highest point of the Indonesian island Pari stands at 1.5 meters above sea level – for now. Climate change has been causing the water to rise steadily for years, endangering the livelihoods of the island residents, who are struggling more frequently with increasingly severe flooding. But the people on Pari do not want to simply accept the demise of their homeland: they are taking legal action in Switzerland against one of the world’s largest emitters of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, the cement company Holcim.
Pesticides
Research by ECCHR showed: Syngenta’s pesticide Gramoxone – which is banned in many countries including throughout the EU – is used on plantations in Indonesia and the Philippines with almost no protective measures.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Sexual and gender-based violence
On behalf of 28 survivors of sexual slavery during Second World War in the Philippines, ECCHR and CenterLaw submitted a communication to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. They call for the acknowledgement of the crimes and reparations.
Pesticides
Research by ECCHR showed: Syngenta’s pesticide Gramoxone – which is banned in many countries including throughout the EU – is used on plantations in Indonesia and the Philippines with almost no protective measures.
Climate change
The highest point of the Indonesian island Pari stands at 1.5 meters above sea level – for now. Climate change has been causing the water to rise steadily for years, endangering the livelihoods of the island residents, who are struggling more frequently with increasingly severe flooding. But the people on Pari do not want to simply accept the demise of their homeland: they are taking legal action in Switzerland against one of the world’s largest emitters of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, the cement company Holcim.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Training & Co-learning
With the help of the Bertha Foundation ECCHR has the capacity to offer two-year fellowships to particularly qualified candidates from our alumn*. Bertha Justice Fellows are part of the global Bertha Justice Network comprised of organizations whose goal is to enforce human rights by legal means.
Armed conflict
Since the final stage of the Sri Lankan civil war, ECCHR has been working to ensure that high-ranking military personnel and (former) members of the Sri Lankan government and security forces are prosecuted for their role in war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual violence.
Armed conflict
Eleven Syrian former employees of the French company Lafarge submitted a criminal complaint against Lafarge in 2016. By maintaining business relations with the terrorist group ISIS in Syria, the company may have contributed to the financing of the group, thereby making them complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Trade unionists
ECCHR filed a criminal complaint against Nestlé and some of its top managers in 2012. The complaint accuses the managers of being in breach of their obligations by failing to prevent crimes of Colombian paramilitary groups and failing to adequately protect trade unionists from these crimes.
Armed conflict
The Colombian state is denying women the protection against sexual crimes and access to justice that it is obliged to guarantee under national and international law. In response, ECCHR has submitted a criminal complaint against Colombia to the International Criminal Court.
Armed conflict
General Padilla was General Commander of the Colombian Military Forces when the practice of “falsos positivos” escalated. He is presumably responsible for international crimes committed by his subordinates, he neither prevented nor punished the wrongdoers.
Peace process
ECCHR criticizes the passing of a new law in context of peace negotiations with Colombian FARC. The law contains gaps, including those regarding military commanders’ effective control over their subordinate units.
Armed conflict
ECCHR submitted a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requesting action on violence against trade unionists and human rights defenders in Colombia.
Repression
Death threats, telephone surveillance, kidnapping of family members – the Colombian government uses a range of means in its efforts to intimidate human rights defenders. Since 2012, ECCHR has researched and documented the brutal repression of trade unionists, environmental activists or community leaders in Colombia.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Training & Co-learning
ECCHR has been able to invite colleagues from international partner organizations to come to Berlin for a set period of time as part of an intensive exchange of experiences and know-how. Bertha Global Exchange Fellows are actively involved in ECCHR's day-to-day work and contribute to issues and cases that their sending organizations are also working on.
Franco dictatorship
The Spanish judiciary brought charges against judge Garzón, who declared his court competent to undertake preliminary investigations into the enforced disappearance, torture and execution during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. Garzón was acquitted of the charges later-on. It remains doubtful whether Spain is willing to independently adress the past atrocities.
Pushbacks
At least 15 dead and many more injured: this is the outcome of a brutal pushback operation by the Spanish Guardia Civil - a paramilitary police force - at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the beach of El Tarajal. ECCHR assisted survivors and witnesses of the events of 6 February 2014 in taking legal proceedings against the Guardia Civil.
Guantánamo
In March 2009, ECCHR partner lawyer Gonzalo Boye filed a criminal complaint against six former US officials of the Bush administration regarding their accountability for violations of international law, including war crimes and torture. The US officials became known as the “Bush Six.”
Training & Co-learning
With the help of the Bertha Foundation ECCHR has the capacity to offer two-year fellowships to particularly qualified candidates from our alumn*. Bertha Justice Fellows are part of the global Bertha Justice Network comprised of organizations whose goal is to enforce human rights by legal means.
Arms exports
Attacks on residential buildings, markets and hospitals enabled by weapons exports to the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make French arms companies potentially complicit in war crimes against civilians in Yemen. ECCHR, together with Mwatana for Human Rights and Sherpa, therefore submitted a criminal complaint with the Paris Court in June 2022.
Wind parks
Big energy companies disrespect human rights and environmental protection time and again – as in the case of Électricité de France in Oaxaca, Mexico. The problem: wind power stations are planned on the territory of the indigenous Unión Hidalgo community. EDF is trying to secure a construction authorization from the Mexican state – but until now, the indigenous group was not effectively consulted.
Armed conflict
Eleven Syrian former employees of the French company Lafarge submitted a criminal complaint against Lafarge in 2016. By maintaining business relations with the terrorist group ISIS in Syria, the company may have contributed to the financing of the group, thereby making them complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Guantánamo
After learning that Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi were being detained by the US at Guantánamo detention center, their families filed a criminal complaint before French courts asking authorities to investigate torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention. That was in November 2002. Since then, the French judiciary has been conducting investigations into the US torture program and the high-ranking officials responsible for it.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Double standards
For several years now, ECCHR has been working on socalled terrorism lists. The main focus of this work is to address the grave violation of basic constitutional and human rights that arises by identifying individuals and groups in such a process of listing.
Franco dictatorship
The Spanish judiciary brought charges against judge Garzón, who declared his court competent to undertake preliminary investigations into the enforced disappearance, torture and execution during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. Garzón was acquitted of the charges later-on. It remains doubtful whether Spain is willing to independently adress the past atrocities.
Armed conflict
Sri Lanka must comply with its international obligations in the fight against gender-based discrimination. The country should bring its law in line with the UN Convention on Women.
Apartheid
ECCHR is supporting the lawsuit filed by South African victims of the apartheid regime against eight European and US corporations (among them Daimbler and Rheinmetall). The plaintiffs accuse the companies of either directly committing human rights violations in South Africa, or of facilitating and supporting state-sponsored human rights violations.
Guantánamo
Belgium failed to investigate and prevent torture in US detention camp Guantánamo. Former detainee and Belgian citizen Zemmouri together with ECCHR argues that Belgian officials were complicit in the abuse.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Double standards
For several years now, ECCHR has been working on socalled terrorism lists. The main focus of this work is to address the grave violation of basic constitutional and human rights that arises by identifying individuals and groups in such a process of listing.
Textile industry
Uzbekistan is considered one of today's most repressive regimes in the world. ECCHR has been engaged in various proceedings to demand that the political and economical interests of Western actors do not further undermine human rights in Uzbekistan.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Networks & Exchange
ECCHR is part of the Bertha Justice Network which is comprised of 17 organizations from all continents, Bertha Justice Partners, as well as Bertha Justice Fellows and alumn*.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Surveillance technology
The Syrian intelligence services have been collecting without cause information about political opponents, members of the opposition and human rights activists. Spying often goes hand in hand with torture. Software from Western corporations may have played a role in the surveillance. In order to address this, transnational investigations have to be initiated.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
Research & Academia
The exchange with universities takes place through a number of different avenues, such as collaborative seminars on human rights issues or the participation of ECCHR staff in university courses.
(Post)Colonial Crimes
In the early 20th century, today’s Namibia was a German colony. The Namibian population was massively and systematically discriminated against. Oppression, violence and land grabbing were widespread. ECCHR is working to address colonial crimes in Namibia and Germany’s colonial past.
Research & Academia
The criminal investigation into Lumumba’s assassination is part of a broader context of structural impunity for the crimes committed by European colonial powers during decolonization. While the long-term effects of colonization persist, direct accountability is rarely possible.
Guantánamo
Moroccan citizen El Haski was convicted to imprisonment in 2004 in Belgium for several offences committed with regard to an alleged terrorist group. At his conviction, witness testimony from Morocco was used which, according to El Haski, was procured by torture.
Death Penalty
Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been sentenced to death in Iran, is a German citizen. For this reason alone, the German judiciary is obligated to investigate this case. His daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, with ECCHR’s support, filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Public Prosecutor (GBA) in Karlsruhe on 21 June 2023.
Double standards
For several years now, ECCHR has been working on socalled terrorism lists. The main focus of this work is to address the grave violation of basic constitutional and human rights that arises by identifying individuals and groups in such a process of listing.
Drones
Sigonella Air Base in Sicily, Italy, is considered of strategic importance for US drone operations in North Africa. ECCHR has filed requests to access information regarding US drones located at Sigonella according to the Italian Freedom of Information Act and filed a criminal complaint against the air base commander.
Rescue at sea
The NGO ship Iuventa (owned and operated by German organization Jugend Rettet) has been rescuing refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, off the Libyan coast, thereby providing crucial aid to those abandoned by state-administered sea rescue. In August 2017, Italian authorities seized the Iuventa, preventing any further rescue missions. In May 2022, pre-trial proceedings against four crew members began.
Rescue at sea
For years, Italy has intimidated, threatened and prosecuted sea rescues that provide vital humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean. To counter this, ECCHR submitted a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders regarding Sea-Watch 3 crew members, in particular Captain Carola Rackete.
Arms exports
In October 2016, an airstrike – alleged to have been carried out by the Saudi-led military coalition – struck a civilian home in the village of Deir Al-Hajari in northwest Yemen. The intentional directing of attacks against the civilian population amounts to war crimes. ECCHR is taking legal action against this.
Textile industry
Italian audit company RINA certified a Ali Enterprises, Pakistan, building shortly before a fire broke out in the factory. The certificate failed to guarantee high standards of security. ECCHR and an international coalition of human rights organizations filed an OECD complaint against RINA in September 2018.
Drones
Sigonella Air Base in Sicily, Italy, is considered of strategic importance for US drone operations in North Africa. ECCHR has filed requests to access information regarding US drones located at Sigonella according to the Italian Freedom of Information Act and filed a criminal complaint against the air base commander.
Labor exploitation
In a comprehensive study, ECCHR has examined whether European companies through their transnational operations cause or contribute to forced labor or other labor abuses along their supply chains and whether they can be held to account. The result of this work is reflected in the report “Accountability for forced labor in a globalized economy.”
Pushbacks
Croatia is obliged to account for its pushback practice to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) before the European Court of Human Rights. The court accepted the individual complaints brought by three Syrian refugees. The applicants were denied any individual assessment as they were summarily and collectively expelled in October 2018 at the border between Croatia and BiH.
Pushbacks
A 21-year-old Syrian refugee crossed the Bosnian-Croatian border. He and other refugees were pushed back by armed Croatian police officials. The Syrian, supported by ECCHR submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee urging it to examine Croatia’s practice of expulsions.
Pushbacks
Four refugees subjected to brutal ill-treatment including sexual violence during a pushback operation by Croatian officers in late 2020 demand justice. Together with the Croatian NGO, CMS (Centre for Peace Studies), they have filed a criminal complaint and insist that the perpetrators are identified and held accountable.
Pushbacks
A Rohingya child refugee faced repeated beatings by Croatian border officers, had his belongings burnt and his shoes confiscated before numerous forced expulsions, including a “chain” pushback from Slovenia.
Pushbacks
A Rohingya child refugee faced repeated beatings by Croatian border officers, had his belongings burnt and his shoes confiscated before numerous forced expulsions, including a “chain” pushback from Slovenia.
Migration
Enslavement, arbitrary detention, sexual violence – these are just some of the serious crimes that migrants and refugees have been systematically subjected to in Libya. In order to bring an end to impunity for such crimes, ECCHR and its partners have, in cooperation with 14 survivors, filed a communication to the International Criminal Court.
Migration
Migrants and refugees who are intercepted while crossing the Mediterranean and forcibly returned to Libyan detention centers are subjected to grave human rights abuses. Despite knowledge of these crimes, a number of EU actors have increased their cooperation with Libya. To push for an end to this impunity, we filed a communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2022 against 24 individuals, including 16 high-level decision makers from EU member states, the EU Commission, the EU border management agency FRONTEX, the European External Action Service EESA, and the EU military mission EUNAVOR MED.
Arms exports
In February 2019, the Regional Court in Stuttgart (Germany) convicted employees of the arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch in a case concerning the shipment of rifles to Mexico. The court investigated whether, between 2006 and 2009, Heckler & Koch illegally sold Type G36 rifles to the Mexican police.
Wind parks
Big energy companies disrespect human rights and environmental protection time and again – as in the case of Électricité de France in Oaxaca, Mexico. The problem: wind power stations are planned on the territory of the indigenous Unión Hidalgo community. EDF is trying to secure a construction authorization from the Mexican state – but until now, the indigenous group was not effectively consulted.
Torture
ECCHR supports claimants in a case of corporate crime in front of the US Supreme Court. The proceedings are a continuation of the high-profile case taken against Shell. The claimants argue that Shell, through its Nigerian subsidiary, aided and abetted crimes, including torture and extrajudicial executions.
Pushbacks
When Europe sealed its borders in 2016, a group of over 1.500 refugees stranded in dire conditions in the informal refugee camp of Idomeni in Greece, walked into North Macedonia to find safety. Together they were intercepted, circled, boarded into vans, driven to the border and forced back by armed officers through a hole in the fence.
Textile industry
Transnational corporations responsibilities also extend to the working conditions in their subsidiary and supplier companies abroad. This position is supported by survivors and relatives of victims of the fatal fire at the Ali Enterprises textile factory in Karachi. Together with ECCHR, they filed a legal action for compensation against KiK.
Textile industry
Transnational corporations responsibilities also extend to the working conditions in their subsidiary and supplier companies abroad. This position is supported by survivors and relatives of victims of the fatal fire at the Ali Enterprises textile factory in Karachi. Together with ECCHR, they filed a legal action for compensation against KiK.
Investments
Germany’s largest development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), spends billions of euros abroad on so-called aid projects, such as on rural development. However, these projects often neglect human rights and environmental protections in the respective countries.
Mining
Mining projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America often give rise to environmental problems and social conflict. Local communities near the Tintaya Antapaccay mine in Peru have raised concerns about heavy metals polluting the water and associated health problems. The mine is run by a Glencore subsidiary.
Mining
Mining projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America often give rise to environmental problems and social conflict. Local communities near the Tintaya Antapaccay mine in Peru have raised concerns about heavy metals polluting the water and associated health problems. The mine is run by a Glencore subsidiary.
Sexual and gender-based violence
On behalf of 28 survivors of sexual slavery during Second World War in the Philippines, ECCHR and CenterLaw submitted a communication to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. They call for the acknowledgement of the crimes and reparations.
Resource exploitation
Local residents of the Romanian region of Roșia Montană successfully opposed the building of a gold mine. Now, mining company Gabriel Resources is suing the Romanian state. ECCHR and its partner organizations have filed an amicus petition and are supporting the community so that their rights continue to be taken into consideration.
Resource exploitation
Local residents of the Romanian region of Roșia Montană successfully opposed the building of a gold mine. Now, mining company Gabriel Resources is suing the Romanian state. ECCHR and its partner organizations have filed an amicus petition and are supporting the community so that their rights continue to be taken into consideration.
NATO
The Varvarin court proceedings in Germany concern the bombing of a bridge in rural Serbia as part of the NATO Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo war. Since 1999, those affected by the attack have been seeking compensation from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Indigenous rights
Border Timbers Limited, a company owned by European investors, challenged the Zimbabwe government’s expropriation of its timber plantations in national and international forums. Indigenous communities, supported by ECCHR, have tried to assert their rights in these proceedings.
Pushbacks
Spanish authorities apprehend and summarily deport unaccompanied minors to Morocco without a procedure to identify them and protect their rights. This policy was strongly condemned by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 2019 in a decision that clearly upholds the fundamental rights of unaccompanied minors at Europe's borders.
Pushbacks
ND and NT crossed the border fence structure in Melilla and entered Spain in August 2014. The Spanish Guardia Civil apprehended them, along with approximately 70 other individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who also had climbed the fences. They were immediately “pushed back” to Morocco – without access to any legal procedures or protection.
Pushbacks
Spanish authorities apprehend and summarily deport unaccompanied minors to Morocco without a procedure to identify them and protect their rights. This policy was strongly condemned by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 2019 in a decision that clearly upholds the fundamental rights of unaccompanied minors at Europe's borders.
Pushbacks
ND and NT crossed the border fence structure in Melilla and entered Spain in August 2014. The Spanish Guardia Civil apprehended them, along with approximately 70 other individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who also had climbed the fences. They were immediately “pushed back” to Morocco – without access to any legal procedures or protection.
Pushbacks
At least 15 dead and many more injured: this is the outcome of a brutal pushback operation by the Spanish Guardia Civil - a paramilitary police force - at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the beach of El Tarajal. ECCHR assisted survivors and witnesses of the events of 6 February 2014 in taking legal proceedings against the Guardia Civil.
Armed conflict
Sri Lanka must comply with its international obligations in the fight against gender-based discrimination. The country should bring its law in line with the UN Convention on Women.
Armed conflict
Since the final stage of the Sri Lankan civil war, ECCHR has been working to ensure that high-ranking military personnel and (former) members of the Sri Lankan government and security forces are prosecuted for their role in war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual violence.
Apartheid
ECCHR is supporting the lawsuit filed by South African victims of the apartheid regime against eight European and US corporations (among them Daimbler and Rheinmetall). The plaintiffs accuse the companies of either directly committing human rights violations in South Africa, or of facilitating and supporting state-sponsored human rights violations.
Infrastructure
In 2010, those affected by the construction of the Merowe dam in North Sudan filed criminal complaints against Lahmeyer employees. The German company played a major role in the construction. Over 4,700 families lost their belongings and their means of subsistence.
Infrastructure
In 2010, those affected by the construction of the Merowe dam in North Sudan filed criminal complaints against Lahmeyer employees. The German company played a major role in the construction. Over 4,700 families lost their belongings and their means of subsistence.
Crimes against humanity
In June 2020, the German police arrested Alaa M, who has since been held in detention awaiting trial. The reason: strong suspicion of complicity in crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian regime since 2011. Approximately one year after his arrest, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed charges against M, a former Syrian doctor who allegedly tortured, killed and sexually abused people in military hospitals.
Torture
The Syrian government led by president Bashar al-Assad is responsible for systematic and widespread torture. This is why in March 2017, ECCHR, seven Syrian torture survivors and lawyers Anwar al-Bunni and Mazen Darwish submitted the first criminal complaint against high-level officials of the Syrian military intelligence service to the German Federal Prosecutor.
Torture
The group around the former Syrian military police employee “Caesar” took for the first legal action by filing together with ECCHR a criminal complaint against senior officials from the Syrian intelligence services and the military police concerning crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Torture
The path to justice for war crimes and torture in Syria also leads through Europe. After Germany, Sweden and France, Austrian authorities have initiated investigations into the Syrian intelligence services’ role in systematic torture. This followed a criminal complaint submitted by 16 Syrians, ECCHR, and its partners to the public prosecutor in Vienna in May 2018.
Torture
The first trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started in Germany in April 2020. The main defendant was Anwar R, a former official at the General Intelligence Directorate in Syrian President Assad’s government.
Armed conflict
Eleven Syrian former employees of the French company Lafarge submitted a criminal complaint against Lafarge in 2016. By maintaining business relations with the terrorist group ISIS in Syria, the company may have contributed to the financing of the group, thereby making them complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Surveillance technology
The Syrian intelligence services have been collecting without cause information about political opponents, members of the opposition and human rights activists. Spying often goes hand in hand with torture. Software from Western corporations may have played a role in the surveillance. In order to address this, transnational investigations have to be initiated.
Torture
The path to justice for war crimes and torture in Syria also leads through Europe. After Germany, Sweden and France, Austrian authorities have initiated investigations into the Syrian intelligence services’ role in systematic torture. This followed a criminal complaint submitted by 16 Syrians, ECCHR, and its partners to the public prosecutor in Vienna in May 2018.
Surveillance technology
The Syrian intelligence services have been collecting without cause information about political opponents, members of the opposition and human rights activists. Spying often goes hand in hand with torture. Software from Western corporations may have played a role in the surveillance. In order to address this, transnational investigations have to be initiated.
Torture
(Also) Sweden can play an important role in the fight against impunity for turture in Syria. This is why, in February 2019, nine torture survivors submitted a criminal complaint in Stockholm against senior officials in the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – including for crimes against humanity.
Torture
The first trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started in Germany in April 2020. The main defendant was Anwar R, a former official at the General Intelligence Directorate in Syrian President Assad’s government.
Torture
In April 2020, the first criminal trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started in Germany. ECCHR supported 17 Syriacan find our reports on the proceedings.
Torture
In order to end impunity for state torture in Syria, five Syrian torture survivors filed a criminal complaint in November 2019 in Norway. The complaint is the next step in a series of criminal complaints against 17 high-ranking officials of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government that have been submitted in Germany, Austria and Sweden.
Torture
Chechnya, an autonomous republic in Russia, and a black hole in the Council of Europe’s human rights protection system: civil society has been the target of severe human rights violations for years. Having resumed office as head of the Chechen Republic in 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov and his close allies have repeatedly deployed military and police forces to terrorize the civilian population in order to “ensure political stability.”
Repression
From 2017 to 2020, Chechen security forces arrested, imprisoned and tortured more than 150 people. Most were gay or bisexual men. The underlying issue is that, according to the government, these men do not correspond to the heterosexual image of masculinity in Chechnya. As a result, they are systematically persecuted.
Surveillance
The Munich-based companies FinFisher GmbH, FinFisher Labs GmbH and Elaman GmbH are accused of selling the surveillance software FinSpy to Turkey without the German government’s permission. When repressive states use surveillance technology, this has all too often led to imprisonment and torture. Following a criminal complaint from ECCHR and its partner organizations, the prosecutor’s office in Munich has opened investigations into the case. IIn May 2023, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against four managers of the corporate group.
Crimes against humanity
Torture of civilians, arbitrary killings, sexual violence – in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, evidence of international crimes committed by Russian soldiers continues to mount. A survivor is now calling for investigations in Germany: members of Russian armed forces allegedly first killed her husband and then raped her several times.
Crimes against humanity
Torture of civilians, arbitrary killings, sexual violence – in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, evidence of international crimes committed by Russian soldiers continues to mount. A survivor is now calling for investigations in Germany: members of Russian armed forces allegedly first killed her husband and then raped her several times.
Guantánamo
In March 2009, ECCHR partner lawyer Gonzalo Boye filed a criminal complaint against six former US officials of the Bush administration regarding their accountability for violations of international law, including war crimes and torture. The US officials became known as the “Bush Six.”
Torture
Between 2004 and 2007, three complaints were filed in Germany and in France against members of the US Government, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and members of the military forces in connection with war crimes, torture and other criminal acts in the military prisons of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.
Guantánamo
Belgium failed to investigate and prevent torture in US detention camp Guantánamo. Former detainee and Belgian citizen Zemmouri together with ECCHR argues that Belgian officials were complicit in the abuse.
Guantánamo
After learning that Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi were being detained by the US at Guantánamo detention center, their families filed a criminal complaint before French courts asking authorities to investigate torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention. That was in November 2002. Since then, the French judiciary has been conducting investigations into the US torture program and the high-ranking officials responsible for it.
Guantánamo
Moroccan citizen El Haski was convicted to imprisonment in 2004 in Belgium for several offences committed with regard to an alleged terrorist group. At his conviction, witness testimony from Morocco was used which, according to El Haski, was procured by torture.
Torture
ECCHR has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor calling for investigations into Gina Haspel’s role in the torture of detainees at a CIA secret prison in Thailand in 2002. Haspel was appointed director of the CIA by President Donald Trump in May 2018.
Textile industry
Uzbekistan is considered one of today's most repressive regimes in the world. ECCHR has been engaged in various proceedings to demand that the political and economical interests of Western actors do not further undermine human rights in Uzbekistan.
Torture
In December 2005, Wolfgang Kaleck, founder and general secretary of ECCHR, filed a criminal complaint against former Uzbek minister of interior Zakir Almatov, the Uzbek head of secret service Rustan Inojatov, and others to the Federal Public Prosecutor on behalf of eight Uzbek citizens because of torture and crimes against humanity.
Iraq
After more than six years, the International Criminal Court closed its preliminary examination of war crimes by UK forces in Iraq. The decision from December 2020 reveals systematic failures of international justice and proves, once again, that powerful actors can get away with torture.
Exploitation
Since the 1970s, the Western Sahara region has been militarily occupied by Morocco. Morocco thus violates the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people. Since 2018, ECCHR has been investigating if Germany is complying with its international obligations concerning the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
