To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
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 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.
Surveillance technology
The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office announced today that it had filed charges against four executives of the FinFisher conglomerate on May 3. They are accused of having intentionally violated licensing requirements for dual-use goods by selling surveillance software to non-EU countries during their tenure as managing directors of the limited liability companies of the FinFisher Group, thereby rendering themselves liable to prosecution. On 5 July 2019, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Society for Civil Liberties, GFF), Reporter ohne Grenzen (Reporters Without Borders, RSF), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and netzpolitik.org filed a criminal complaint against several managing directors of the companies FinFisher GmbH, FinFisher Labs GmbH, and Elaman GmbH.
Gemeinsames Statement von über 50 Organisationen
Europaweit arbeiten politische und gesellschaftliche Strömungen auf die weitgehende Abschaffung des Flüchtlingsschutzes hin. Sie stellen die Allgemeingültigkeit von Menschenrechten, rechtsstaatlichen Grundsätzen und europäischen Werten infrage. Gleichzeitig beobachten wir einen massiven Anstieg und die billigende Inkaufnahme von gewaltsamen und menschenunwürdigen Handlungen gegenüber Schutzsuchenden, insbesondere an den Außengrenzen der Europäischen Union. Verstöße gegen geltendes Recht werden teils gar nicht mehr oder nur unzureichend verfolgt.
"10 years after Rana Plaza, there are still factories in Bangladesh producing clothes for international corporations like Amazon, IKEA or Tom Tailor, where there are hardly any safety checks. We can no longer accept this," says Amirul Haque Amin, president and co-founder of the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).
More than two years without effective investigation into a brutal pushback involving sexual assault
Today a lawsuit was filed at Croatia’s Constitutional Court regarding an ineffective and inadequate investigation into a pushback case by a group of refugees who were victims of a particularly brutal pushback from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in October 2020, which included severe violence and sexual assault. More than two years after filing a criminal complaint, the State Attorney has so far failed to open an official investigation.
Conflict in Ukraine and accountability for economic actors: universal jurisdiction increasingly instrumental in the fight against impunity
TRIAL International, in collaboration with Civitas Maxima, Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), ECCHR, FIDH and REDRESS, releases the 2023 edition of the Universal Jurisdiction Annual Review (UJAR) today. The increasing use of the principles of universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction to curb impunity for international crimes is highlighted in the report. Out of the 93 cases covered in the UJAR, 27 are new cases. This trend has, on one hand, been strengthened by the mobilization of a number of national prosecuting authorities in response to the atrocities committed on Ukrainian territory following Russia’s invasion, and, on the other hand, by new investigations targeting economic actors.
Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu
Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu
