Making the Law Work for Everyone
The Open Society Justice Initiative uses the law to promote and defend justice and human rights.
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Building Roads to Justice in Syria
The Open Society Justice Initiative is part of a broad movement of Syrian and international groups that are bringing some of those responsible for atrocity crimes in Syria before courts in Europe.
Kenyan Court Puts Hold on Digital Identity Scheme
A Kenyan court has ordered the government to stop implementation of its the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) until a constitutionally sound framework is in place
Court Moves to Protect Venezuelan Children born in Colombia from Statelessness
A court in Colombia has ruled that the government must consider statelessness risks when determining the nationality of children born in Colombia to Venezuelans fleeing their country's political and economic chaos.
Universal Jurisdiction Law and Practice in Norway
This briefing paper provides an overview of Norway's legal framework on universal jurisdiction—which provides the authority to national courts to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed on foreign territory by foreign nationals.
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As part of the Open Society Foundations, the Justice Initiative shares its mission of building vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens.
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Since 2003, Justice Initiative lawyers have represented scores of individuals before domestic and international courts, in cases that have sought not only to vindicate individual claims, but to establish and strengthen the law’s protection for all.
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Acquittal Marks Advance for Struggle against Torture in Brazil
A criminal court in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has for the first time acknowledged the validity of internationally agreed standards on effective legal and medical investigations into allegations of torture—resulting in the acquittal of seven torture survivors who had been tried for drugs-related charges.
A New Report Warns of Looming Threat to U.S. Citizenship, Calls for Moratorium on Denaturalizations
A new Open Society Justice Initiative report warns of a looming threat to U.S. citizenship due to the Trump administration’s effective renunciation of longstanding norms and constitutional protections.
European Court of Human Rights Finds Russia Responsible for Death of Whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky
The European Court of Human Rights today delivered a comprehensive rebuke to Russia over the 2009 death in pretrial detention of Sergei Magnitsky, the accountant who had previously exposed a $230m tax fraud involving officials of Russia’s powerful Interior Ministry.