We litigate with a dual mandate — challenging unjust domestic laws in national courts, and exposing structural failures of international legal frameworks before the ECtHR, ICC, and ICJ. Our cases are selected not only for the individuals they help, but for the legal precedents they set.
Most legal aid organizations focus on securing outcomes for individual clients. OLJA's strategic litigation programme is designed primarily to change the law itself — using individual cases as vehicles for systemic legal transformation.
We operate simultaneously at two levels: national courts where domestic legislation can be struck down or reinterpreted, and international tribunals where state responsibility can be established and international legal standards clarified — or challenged.
OLJA selects litigation arenas based on the type of law being challenged and the legal precedent sought — not based on institutional convenience.
Constitutional challenge of domestic legislation that violates binding international human rights obligations. We work with local counsel in target jurisdictions to bring cases designed to establish binding domestic precedent or compel legislative reform.
Inter-state and individual applications against Council of Europe member states. OLJA prioritises cases that expose systemic failures — not merely individual violations — and that have the potential to generate pilot judgments binding across multiple jurisdictions.
Cases before the ICC, ICJ, and regional human rights courts (African Court, Inter-American Court). At this level, OLJA also pursues cases that expose the structural inadequacies of international legal frameworks themselves — not merely state violations of existing rules.
We prioritise cases with the potential to invalidate laws or establish precedents that protect large numbers of people — not cases that achieve good outcomes for single individuals without broader impact. Every case must have a clearly defined systemic goal.
We select cases that raise genuinely novel legal questions — questions that, if resolved favourably, will advance the development of domestic or international human rights law in ways that protect future plaintiffs. We do not litigate settled questions.
All OLJA litigation is undertaken with the full, free, and informed consent of affected communities. We do not impose legal strategies on communities without their active participation in the decision-making process. The affected community's goals drive the litigation strategy.
We assess the realistic prospect of success, the available evidence base, the quality of accessible local counsel, the political environment, and the enforcement prospects before committing to a case. Strategic litigation requires strategic judgment — not only legal merit.
Every founding donation funds the infrastructure for cases that can change the law for thousands — or millions — of people.