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Using the law. For a world free from torture, exploitation and fortressed borders.
ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means. Together with our global network, we enforce human rights and make injustice visible. In court and society.
Current cases
Pakistani farmers file climate lawsuit against RWE and Heidelberg Materials
In 2022, devastating floods in Pakistan destroyed homes, fields, and livelihoods for millions. Now, 39 farmers from the Sindh region filed a lawsuit againt Germany’s largest polluters, RWE and Heidelberg Materials, at the Heidelberg Regional Court. Their demand is simple but powerful — those who profit from pollution must pay for the harm they cause. But this is more than a lawsuit. It’s a fight for survival, dignity, and global accountability.
Edeka faces court over sustainable palm oil claims
On 20 January 2026, the case concerning controversial palm oil will be heard at the Hamburg Regional Court. People affected in Guatemala accuse the German supermarket chain Edeka of promoting products with the sustainable palm oil label (RSPO), even though the cultivation of the palm oil plantations causes environmental and human rights problems. ECCHR and foodwatch filed the lawsuit in 2024 together with the affected communities.
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Wikimedia / Harry Pot for Anefo
65 Years After Lumumba´s Assassination, Historic Hearing in Brussels
Sixty-five years after the assassination of Patrice Émery Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of independent Congo and iconic figure of the African independence movements, the Belgian justice system has been called upon to determine whether the criminal proceedings concerning the circumstances of his death should proceed.
Climate lawsuit against Holcim admissable
For the first time ever in Switzerland, a court has declared a climate lawsuit brought against a large corporation admissable: The court allowed all demands set out in the complaint brought by four Indonesian fishers against the Swiss cement company Holcim to proceed. This clears the way for an assessment of the merits of the case.
Palestinian from Gaza seeks to stop deliveries of German tank transmissions
ECCHR is supporting a Palestinian from Gaza in an urgent application to the German Federal Constitutional Court. The application aims to ensure that no further tank transmissions are delivered as long as the Federal Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on the constitutional complaint filed in October 2025—and before the transmissions are used against the civilian population in Gaza.
Germany's border controls erode core EU rights
A Syrian refugee and journalist has filed a complaint to the Administrative Court in Stuttgart, challenging an unlawful, violent and seemingly racially motivated border control by German officers at the French border. The control violates fundamental rights under German law, as well as the right to move freely in the Schengen zone.
Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.
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Institute for Legal Intervention
Critical Legal Training
At ECCHR, we look to a growing network to share and develop our motivation, knowledge and innovative approaches to conducting human rights work. With this in mind, ECCHR’s Critical Legal Training focuses on training, networking and collaborative learning. To ensure the future of progressive human rights work, we take part in an ongoing learning process together with young lawyers and our international colleagues.
International Summer School on Corporate Accountability & Climate Justice
Together with the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Tilburg Law School, ECCHR organizes an international summer school for human rights practitioners and advanced students on the topic of Corporate Accountability & Climate Justice.
Investigative Commons reinvents legal investigations
To expand the production of (forensic) evidence to actors beyond state-appointed experts and to use forums other than courts for accountability, we co-founded the Investigative Commons in 2020 together with long-time partner Forensic Architecture and their German sister agency Forensis.
The Institute for Legal Intervention focuses on critical perspectives on the law, particularly concerning power and power dynamics. We aim to make a long-term contribution to societal, legal and political debates through exchange with universities and research institutions, through our training and co-learning activities, through collaboration with our partners worldwide as well as in dialogue with artists and activists.
Events
27 January 2026, 2:00 pm
Challenging Deadly Pesticide Exports: Yavatmal Farmers vs. Syngenta in Swiss Courts
ECCHR in the media
Lumumba killing case back in Belgian courts, 65 years later
Germany never stopped arming Israel’s genocide
Indonesians set to face cement giant Holcim in Swiss court
Why Germany Must Rethink its Syria and Migration Policy
Total faces war crimes allegations over Mozambique massacre
French cement firm Lafarge in the dock, accused of funding terrorism
Sea-rescue NGOs cut ties with Libyan rescuers over abuses
Pakistani farmers to sue German polluters over climate-linked flood damage
Gaza: Does ceasefire impact international war crimes cases?
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Publications
A Palestinian from Gaza seeks justice in Germany's top court
Abdel J., a Palestinian from Gaza, has lost everything he loved: his wife and child were killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2024. Now he is taking legal action against Germany’s exports of weapons of war and arms shipments to Israel which continue to be used in Gaza, even after the current fragile ceasefire.
Would you like to receive regular updates on our case work on Israel and Palestine in the coming months? Subscribe to our special newsletter here.
The Pretense of Justice
With its report The Pretense of Justice, ECCHR presents an analysis of the Israeli justice system’s persistent unwillingness to genuinely prosecute international crimes committed against Palestinians. The report demonstrates that Israel’s self-portrayal as a “rule of law-abiding state” is untenable.
Understanding the EU Forced Labour Regulation
The European Union’s Regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the EU market (otherwise known as the Forced Labour Regulation) entered into force on 13 December 2024. It bans the sale, import and export of goods made using forced labour. As part of our advocacy in this area, we published a model law with the key elements that would create a worker-cen- tred Regulation, analysis on evidentiary standards, an initial position paper, as well as a submission of evidence to the European Commission.
In order to sustainably change the law, a transformation of social power relations is needed – and new laws have to be created. This is why ECCHR initiates and participates in legal and law-related policy debates, organizes public events and publishes on selected topics.
15 Years of Engagement
The existence of human rights is not a foregone conclusion – rather, they must be defended and fought for again and again. The challenges of legal human rights work demand perseverance and have been our central focus since ECCHR’s foundation in 2007. Read our multimedia article “Fighting for 15 years to uphold human rights worldwide.”
