Strategic Litigation”
a Debt Owed To The Most Vulnerable”
Center for Strategic Litigation
Center for Strategic Litigation is a platform that seeks to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo through strategic litigation. Strategic litigation is the litigation of cases that can benefit many people; cases that can serve the interest of the public in addition to serving the interest of the individual person. Strategic litigation is recognized as a powerful tool for legal, political and social reform, because its purpose is to reach broader and long-lasting change, rather than just winning the case at hand. This process also includes the use of the media, advocacy, trainings and other instruments, in order to raise the public awareness about certain issues that need to be addressed, and to pressure responsible authorities to reach rightful decisions and in due time.
As the first of its kind in Kosovo, the Center for Strategic Litigation identifies strategic cases, or cases that can benefit many citizens, and then prepares and sends them before courts of law or the public administration. The representation of the parties in these cases is done by the lawyers or jurists of the Center for Strategic Litigation, a team dedicated to the protection of the represented person’s individual rights, as well to making a change for everyone else in the same circumstances.
The Core Values of our work include values such as justice prevalence, protection of public interest, integrity, dignity, respect for the law and the court, accountability, diversity, equality, social justice and prohibition of hate speech.
The Mission of the Center
The Mission of the Center is to expose and correct existing problems with
(1) the contents of legal acts in Kosovo, such as gaps and ambiguities within laws, as well as with
(2) the implementation or interpretation of these legal acts by the public institutions.
Considering that in many cases the public institutions in Kosovo violate citizens’ rights by not implementing legal acts as they ought to, the mission of the Center is for these violations to be exposed and not repeated again, or at least, to be punished accordingly.
In addition, the mission of the Center is to create precedents, to raise the people’s awareness, to highlight injustices, to promote human rights and to trigger change where needed. The Center works to achieve these through sending strategic cases before courts or the administration, as well as through putting them in the public agenda through the use of media, continuous advocacy, trainings and distribution of analyses to the citizens.
The Service Area of the Center
The Service Area of the Center includes only cases where the public institutions in Kosovo violated citizens’ rights. The Center aims to support those who have been harmed by the actions or non-actions of the public administration and courts of law. The Center focuses on, among others, public institutions’ violations of human rights, environmental protection law, labor law and access to public documents law.
The Center evaluates cases according to these criteria:
- Public Interest: Does the violation of the public institution negatively affect the public interest? Can many citizens benefit from a rightful decision of the court in the case at hand, or just by raising the collective awareness about the certain problem?
- Reform: Does the case have potential to bring legal, political and social reforms where needed?
- Development: Can the case benefit the development, interpretation or implementation of legal acts in Kosovo?
- International Standards: Does the case have potential to bring international standards into domestic law?
Strategic Cases
Strategic Cases are identified in two ways:
(1) through research done at the Center, and
(2) through receiving applications from persons interested to bring their case to the Center.
The Center is open to the public and everyone can apply. For more information on how to apply and how the evaluation process is click How to Apply.