Vision and Mission
“Brave lawyers standing up for the rule of law, wanting to join in partnership.
It is partnership of equals, not a partnership of teachers and learners. It is inspiring.”
Our vision: Harnessing the power of the law
Providing access to a peer-to-peer forum where legal and activist expertise can be shared.
Human and environmental rights activists are on the front-line of global efforts to halt widespread and disastrous human rights abuses and environmental destruction, at the intersection of human, environmental, and climate justice. At the local level, rights to free, prior, and informed consent can be critical to the prevention of extractive projects and damaging business practices. In the long term, legal action upholding human rights and challenging violations will contribute to a sturdier legal ecosystem and the strengthening of the rule of law. Sharing successful legal strategies and best practice across jurisdictions will in turn align activist strategies and bring legal specialists, grassroot activists and organisations together to form a cohesive global movement that is able to accelerate the transfer of knowledge in an accessible manner, find innovative solutions to global problems and build legal resilience.
Accelerating the transfer of legal knowledge to strengthen the power of activists to secure human rights and environmental protections and redress for environmental damage has proved hopeful and effective for communities in the past. An example comes from August 2021, when Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay around €95m (£80.4m) to communities in southern Nigeria as compensation for damage caused by crude oil spills, dating back to 1970.
Collaboration, access to tested legal strategies and investigations in support of grassroots activists impacted by corporate abuse are essential to pursuing similar achievements. We need stronger, more diverse legal approaches to the prevention of business-led human rights and environmental abuses if we are to build this global movement. Our legal ecosystem must root itself in community knowledge and vision, collaborating with those with access to new opportunities and international mechanisms.
There is an urgent need to transfer knowledge and share expertise and skills across jurisdictions, making it available and visible to activists and communities, especially at a time when the need for environmental protection and sustainable development is greater than ever.
“I am always happy and proud to tell people what I do.
That luxury is not a reality for those operating in fragile societies”
Our Mission
We aim to work with a global community of activists across regions, creating collaborative learning spaces so they can connect, share insights, test strategies, and increase their impact. We will bridge the gap between regional activist networks and experience within the international legal community and embed practical strategies in communities by harnessing the power of the law to support existing grassroots activists. Crucially, activists will be able to locate peers who have experienced similar issues, draw on experience from around the world, and cooperate on solutions to local issues.
Through this networked approach, we aim to create a dialogue between the global North and South, connecting social and environmental justice movements, victims of abuses, and lawyers around the world, to provide critically needed peer-to-peer support.
As we further our understanding of the needs of activists, we will continue to coordinate and connect our activities, build partnerships with wider legal networks to increase the support available to activists and disseminate innovative legal strategies through our Best Practice Forum.
Roots to Justice will be a platform to connect human and environmental rights activists with legal specialists around the World. We will work with activists and legal specialists to develop and embed innovative legal strategies that enforce and protect human rights and our planet and tackle the lack of implementation of important legal protections.
Our Best Practice Forum, an online platform linking legal specialists and grassroots activists through a range of methods and spaces, will focus on legal skills and strategies that will enable grassroots activists to explore legal strategies that meet local needs and respond strategically to corporate abuse and malpractice. Roundtables, one-to-one discussions, webinars, and mock trials will provide a platform and space for peer-to-peer learning.
Our immediate aims are to:
Deepen the understanding of international legal frameworks, the duties of state and non-state actors and appropriate redress mechanisms, and their capacity to instigate and coordinate legal strategies (including case building, monitoring, legal advocacy and analysis of legal processes.)
Increase resilience and strengthen connections with the international legal community through peer-to-peer support, collaborative mentoring partnerships, and longer term pro bono assistance.
Connect hundreds of human and environmental rights activists from Latin America, Africa and Asia with an international network of lawyers committed using their skills and resources to tackle corporate abuse and malpractice.
“You want the parties that are potentially abusing human rights to know -
there is support from international law firms to rebut whatever is being alleged.”
Richard Dyton, Lawyers Against Poverty Trustee.
“If we do not know how to demand them, there is absolutely no way we will be granted the privileges guaranteed to us.”
Steve Kinuthia