December 10, 2020
Atlantic Council Announces Launch of Strategic Litigation Project
New effort will inject fresh thinking into how legal tools can be used to advance human rights and government transparency
WASHINGTON, DC – December 10, 2020 – The Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs today announced the launch of the Strategic Litigation Project – a landmark new effort that will merge law and policy to advance the concept of using legal tools to hold state actors, state proxies, non-state actors, and affiliated entities to account for human rights violations and abuses, atrocity crimes, corruption, and acts of terrorism.
“Governments have long used a combination of diplomatic, economic, and intelligence tools to advance human rights and democracy around the world,” said William F. Wechsler, Director of Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council. “Now is the time to build a new set of tools that can take advantage of the potential reach of legal systems and their extensive civil and criminal authorities, both domestic and extraterritorial, to help advance these same goals.”
Governments have long used a combination of diplomatic, economic, and intelligence tools to advance human rights and democracy around the world
The guiding mission of the Project is to seek redress for survivors and victims of serious international crimes by connecting them to the power of governments and private litigators, and creating justice-led solutions. People-powered demands for accountability are a key element in combating impunity. But those demands can be strengthened by tying calls for justice to legal muscle and governmental machinery to craft targeted, surgical approaches to holding violators accountable.
To examine which legal approaches can be most effective, the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project spoke to key stakeholders and victims to catalog existing criminal and civil litigation tools and explore the creation of new laws and mechanisms around the world to help combat impunity for serious international crimes.
Today’s launch, on International Human Rights Day, featured the release of a major report that focuses on civil litigation strategies that can hold perpetrators accountable for human rights violations and atrocity crimes in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). With no sign of net improvement in human rights in Iran, it is a global imperative to reimagine the ways in which those committing gross human rights violations in Iran can be held responsible.
The Strategic Litigation Project will be led by Gissou Nia, an international human rights lawyer and non-profit leader. She serves as board chair of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, where she helps develop and oversee the group’s human rights advocacy and legal programs, which seek to promote accountability, respect for human rights, and the rule of law in Iran. Nia started her career in The Hague, where she worked on war crimes and crimes against humanity trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court.
Investing in legal tools to hold perpetrators of human rights violations in Iran responsible in forums around the world will keep the spotlight on securing justice for the victims and survivors of the IRI’s violations of international law and its own laws.
“At a time when governments around the world are seeking to reengage with the IRI over its nuclear program and other issues, observers fear that those discussions will overshadow human rights concerns,” said Nia. “Investing in legal tools to hold perpetrators of human rights violations in Iran responsible in forums around the world will keep the spotlight on securing justice for the victims and survivors of the IRI’s violations of international law and its own laws. Using legal tools strengthens the international rules-based system and avoids the sweeping, mass punishment of broad-based economic sanctions or extreme measures like targeted killings.”
To mark the launch of the Strategic Litigation Project, top international human rights litigators will join Nia in conversation on Tuesday, December 15, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss key takeaways from civil litigation in courts in the United States, Canada, and Europe that can apply to cases concerning human rights violations in Iran.
For media inquiries, please contact press@atlanticcouncil.org.
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Image: Statue of Lady Justice in Frankfurt, Germany. Picture taken on April 10, 2013. Creative Commons