Annual report
2017
At a time when governments around the world are locking up their critics and openly calling on people to ignore or break the law, when Western states are going to great lengths to drive back people fleeing war, misery and persecution, and when transnational corporations can get away with putting profit over human life – then resistance is needed. ECCHR is part of this resistance, using legal tools to challenge injustice.
Our latest annual report documents the cases, legal strategies and policy goals we pursue as well the partners we work with around the world.
2016 was not a good year for human rights. The successes of the year are therefore all the more welcome: the criminal complaint against French cement company Lafarge concerning its business dealings with IS in Syria had an immediate impact, with the firm admitting its mistakes. The European Court of Human Rights responded positively to the complaint from eight refugees on their violent push-backs at the Macedonian-Greek border. And there was finally good news for the Pakistani claimants bringing a lawsuit against German retailer KiK concerning a devastating factory fire when a German court granted their legal costs for the proceedings.
The annual report is illustrated with photographs by Mohamed Badarne.
