Objectives of the seminar were...

• To raise awareness among member organisations of the value of strategic litigation as a tool for achieving long term objectives both at national and European level
• To equip participants with sufficient knowledge to make a start on using litigation in their organisation's advocacy plans, and to engage in dialogue with litigation partners.

The seminar explained the concept of strategic litigation, explored the type of issues which can be addressed, illustrated the benefits from successful examples, and looked at questions such as identifying good cases, the needs of the person taking the case, and finding/working with legal experts. Participants then dived into three groups (basic rights, trans rights and family issues) to discuss their cases with experts and how they could be further developed.

The seminar is part of a new progamme of work by ILGA-Europe aimed at enhancing the capacity of member organisations to undertake strategic litigation on sexual orientation and gender identity issues at both national and European level. It is intended that it will be followed with workshops in which selected member organisations and their legal advisers work together on the development of a national litigation strategy. An important aim of the programme is to generate cases which close gaps in LGBT human rights case law at European and national level.

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Downloads

• The programme of the seminar
• Expert presentations:
  • Peter Ashman - What is Strategic Litigation
  • Christine Burns - UK Trans Litigation
  • Allison Jernow - Same Sex Family Law
  • Constantin Cojocariu - Taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights
  • Nigel Warner (ILGA-Europe) - Committee of Ministers Recommendation

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For any questions, please contact Nigel Warner, ILGA-Europe Council of Europe adviser.