New Challenges to Impunity Program
The goal of our New Challenges Program is to seek out and litigate cutting edge cases that either provide a new theory for holding governments and corporations liable for human rights violations.
Innovative Theories of Liability
Using the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) to establish liability of corporations linked to human rights violations was a groundbreaking – and successful - legal strategy. Our New Challenges Program will carefully select a small number of cases that will similarly develop new theories to hold wrongdoers liable for human rights abuses and multiply tools for activists.
For instance, it is by now well-established that crimes against humanity are actionable in U.S. courts, but other large-scale human rights violations, such as forced movement and persecution, have not been thoroughly litigated. In one of our cases, Bridgestone-Firestone, the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana recently decided that our plaintiffs could proceed with the first case ever to try international law claims for illegal child labor.
In addition, the possibility of making claims for violations of international law under US state laws, as in the Dyncorp case, opens a new and very powerful means to hold corporate actors liable for a larger range of human rights violations than presently available through litigation based on ATCA.
Current cases:
RIGHT TO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT/RIGHT TO HEALTH/INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
STATE CLAIMS APPLIED TO MULTINATIONAL ACTORS
— Chris Saeger, "Strengthening Rule of Law Through Aid for Human Rights Litigation in National Courts: A Case Study of Oil Multinational Corporations Complicit in Human Rights Violations in Sudan and Nigeria (December 2007)
— Terry Collingsworth, "Using the Alien Tort Claims Act to Introduce the Rule of Law to the Global Economy (2005)
International Rights Advocates is a nonprofit dedicated to holding corporations accountable for human rights violations in countries around the world. IRAdvocates already has 14 pending cases but without your support, IRAdvocates will not be able to continue its litigation.