Center for Legal Resources

"Human rights are more than just a simple philosophical term, they represent a law concept." (Amnesty International)

The lack of jurisprudence on human rights and good governance leads to situations where the same law case is interpreted differently in the court of law. CLR aims at contributing to solving this paradox by the means of strategic litigation.

The programme has the following objectives:
- to promote litigations on defending human rigths, free access to public information, environmental law under own name or in partnership with other nongovernmental organizations.
- based on strategic litigations to promote the necessary provisions for changing legislation and its implementation or for adopting new provisions in case of legal void.
- to encourage the civil society in Romania to stand up if fundamental rights are violated and promote free access to justice as a legitimate right of all citizens, a right which is not only stipulated by the law but also guaranteed in practice.

 
Network of Lawyers in the service of the Human Rights

The Network of Lawyers in the service of the Human Rights is an open structure, aiming at ensuring a constructive framework for lawyers involved in promoting the human rights to debate judicial matters and to exchange experience. As members to the network, who support strategic litigations in the instances, the lawyers are bringing their contribution to the reform of the judicial system, raising awareness among the practitioners of the legal professions about the central role of the human rights in creating an efficient judiciary, accessible to all the citizens.   
 

Areas of interest:
-  The right to get  public information
-  Securing the freedom of expression
-  Transparency in decision making process with regard to carrying out the public duties
-  Fighting corruption
-  Protection of the environment
-  Fighting discrimination
-         Promoting chances’ equality
-         Protection of the right to privacy
-         Protection of the people with physical and mental disabilities


The Purpose of the network:
- To bring about, by judicial mechanisms, the legal and social changes, such as:
- Involvement in drawing up drafts of law in the context of harmonizing the Romanian legislation to the international/European one;
- broadening the knowledge of the fundamental rights and liberties, of the democratic values, as well as of the practical means of their exercising and protection within the public authorities, civil society, large public;
- Changing the attitudes and mentalities amongst some professional or social groups (magistrates, lawyers, politicians, teachers, public servants, political parties etc) regarding the democratic values and the fundamental human rights;
- increasing the capacity of the civil society to initiate lawsuits to defeat human rights and fundamental liberties when they are broken
 
Center for Legal Resources’ activities in the benefit of the members of the network:   
- Information disseminationon strategic litigations solved in the instance, legislative studies and analysis;
- Financing strategic litigations in the field of human rights, with impact to some vulnerable social groups;
- Organizing training sessions led by national and international experts
 
 
Admission of the New Members:
The lawyers wishing to activate in the field of human rights and to propose strategic litigations are encouraged to submit their application to CLR. There is an ongoing selection process of the new members. The applicants are requested to send a CV and a motivation letter, emphasizing their experience in the field and their interest in the human rights and the democracy’s values, to   jobs@crj.ro
 
Call for Proposals for Strategic Litigation:
The Network for Lawyers in the service of Human Rights is launching a call for proposals for strategic litigations in the field of human rights. The call is addressed to the lawyers who want to search for, to gather evidence and to sustain strategic litigation in front of the jury. In order to get financing, the lawyers should propose cases eligible for the “Strategic Litigations” Program, to fill and send the file for funding to Catalina Radulescu
 
CLR is an associate member to the Justice & Environment Network since 2006. Justice & Environment is a network made up of 14 independent NGOs of public interest, who are active in the field of human rights within the Members States of the European Union. The network aims at protecting the citizens, the nature and the environment. One of its main goals is to ensure the implementation and the enforcement of the community’s environmental legislation through exchange of judicial information.

Justice & Environment (J&E) European Network of Environmental Law Organizations receives operational funding from the European Union within its LIFE+ NGO Grants funding scheme for 2011. Part of this funding covers Strategic Litigation Program of Center for Legal Resources. J&E performs this legal advice via legal experts who work at Center for Legal Resources.

• Other Activities
• Litigations
• Completed Projects