We map every law that violates human rights across all 193 UN member states — from village ordinances to international conventions — building the world's most comprehensive open-access database of rights-violating legislation.
Most human rights organizations work reactively — responding to violations after they occur. OLJA takes a fundamentally different approach: we identify the unjust laws themselves, before they cause harm, and build the infrastructure for systematic legal challenge.
Our legislative research programme operates on three levels simultaneously: local and municipal law, national statutory law, and international legal frameworks. No other organization maps all three levels in a single integrated system.
The OLJA LexGlobal Database is multilingual, open-access, and completely free. It is designed to be used by lawyers, judges, civil society organizations, academics, and affected communities — anyone who needs to understand the legal landscape of rights violations in any jurisdiction.
OLJA's research does not stop at national law. We trace rights violations from the smallest local ordinance to the highest international treaty — because oppression operates at every level.
Municipal regulations, local ordinances, regional administrative decrees, and customary local practices that violate rights. This level is the most under-researched in international human rights law — and often the most immediately felt by affected communities.
Constitutions, statutes, penal codes, family law, immigration law, counter-terrorism legislation, and all national legal instruments that fail to meet international human rights standards. We assess each against binding treaty obligations.
The treaties, conventions, Security Council resolutions, and customary international law that themselves contain gaps, anachronisms, and structural failures. OLJA is unique in subjecting international law itself to the same critical scrutiny we apply to domestic law.
The OLJA LexGlobal Database is the central output of this programme. It will be the world's first multilingual, open-access database mapping rights-violating laws across all legal levels in all UN member states.
Every entry is cross-referenced with the relevant international human rights standards, indexed by issue area, and linked to any known legal challenge or reform effort. Users can search by country, issue, legal level, or treaty obligation.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Coverage | 193 UN member states |
| Languages | 9 (EN, AR, FR, ES, RU, ZH, NL, IT, FA) |
| Legal levels | Local · National · International |
| Issue indexing | 30+ thematic categories |
| Treaty cross-ref | All core UN human rights treaties |
| Access | Free, open-access, no registration |
| API | Available for researchers & developers |
We identify rights-violating laws through a combination of systematic treaty body review, shadow report analysis, civil society partner networks, academic collaboration, and direct community engagement. Each law is classified by type, severity, scope, and affected population.
Every identified law is assessed against the applicable binding international human rights obligations — including the ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, CAT, CRC, and relevant regional instruments. We document the specific provisions violated and the degree of incompatibility.
For each identified law, we map the available legal challenge pathways — domestic constitutional review, regional human rights courts, UN treaty body communications, and legislative reform advocacy. This transforms the database from a record of violations into a tool for action.
Laws change. Courts strike down provisions. Legislatures pass new restrictions. Our monitoring system tracks legal developments in all 193 jurisdictions and updates the database in real time, ensuring that advocates always have current, accurate information.
The LexGlobal Database requires sustained investment in research infrastructure, legal expertise, and technology. Your founding support makes this work possible.