Justice International

We support international and regional legal claims and advocacy on behalf of torture survivors worldwide. 

As part of our strategy, we advocate for survivors of torture by working with national partners to bring and support cases before national and regional courts around the world, UN treaty bodies and the International Criminal Court. In doing so, we focus on countries in which accountability for torture does not occur, but a potential for justice exists domestically, regionally or internationally. We also cooperate with prosecutors in Europe to support cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

REDRESS works to secure justice for survivors through country projects including: 

Sudan. With partners, we seek to promote legal reform processes and accountability for violations in Sudan. We focus on reforms needed to prevent, prosecute, and redress serious human rights violations. We will also draw attention to the institutional and structural factors which have historically facilitated serious human rights violations. 

Belarus. REDRESS is a co-lead of the International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB) with Dignity, Human rights Center Viasna, International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus. The IAPB is a coalition of independent NGOs to collect, consolidate, verify, and preserve evidence of international crimes committed in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath. We aim at supporting universal jurisdiction cases and advocate for justice by engaging in partnerships with other NGOs and promoting a survivor-centred approach. 

Egypt. We are committed to ending impunity for widespread torture in Egypt through various accountability mechanisms and launching investigations into incidents of torture. Our work focuses on preventing the torture of dissidents, including demonstrators and human rights activists. 

Ukraine. By establishing a Universal Jurisdiction Advocacy Group together with our partner organisations (ECCHR, FIDH and TRIAL International), we work to ensure accountability for human rights violations through advancing universal jurisdiction by means of advocacy and strategic litigation. We also promote imposing sanctions for human rights violations in Ukraine under the Magnitsky sanctions regime and work on repurposing assets for reparations (read more on our Reparation Programme). 

In all these countries and others, to achieve our objective, we use various tools: 

• Advocacy: In collaboration with partner NGOs, we are implementing a common advocacy strategy targeting regional and international stakeholders, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Human Rights Council and other UN bodies, as well as State policy makers. We advocate for legal reforms, investigations and accountability for torture in various countries. 
• Strategic litigation: We promote the use of universal jurisdiction as a tool for accountability, we organise trainings for partner NGOs on domestic, international and regional strategic litigation, and provide mentoring and case support.
• Partnership: REDRESS is one of nine civil society organisations and two associate partners that have joined forces to lead the “Global Initiative Against Impunity for International Crimes and Serious Human Rights Violations: Making Justice Work”. Each of the organisations, in collaboration with their networks of national and regional partners, will contribute their expertise in promoting victim-centred, trauma informed and gender sensitive justice and accountability for serious human rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearance, and other core international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.