Community-centered approaches as key part of strategic litigation. Community of Practice Retreat 2023

From 19 to 21 September, 2023, the second Community of Practice retreat took place in France bringing together 22 organisations working on litigation for LGBTQI+ rights, Sex Workers rights, migration, Roma rights, socio-economic rights, equality and nondiscrimination, and climate and environment across the Council of Europe region.
The Community of Practice was set up in the Summer of 2022. It has been created with the shared mission of working collectively to promote community-centred lawyering and reframe the litigation process so they can be more accessible and better serve communities resisting injustice and their objectives, also offering a unique opportunity to foster crossjurisdictional support for strategic litigation, advocacy and campaigning for human rights and gender justice.
New Generation Humanitarian NGO (NG NGO) was involved in the consultation process that led to the creation of the Community of Practice, and has been closely engaged in its development ever since.
During the retreat, the participants reflected and looked back on the work of the Community, consolidated its structure, connected and learnt more about each other’s work, and made plans for the year ahead.
The retreat also provided space for reflection on, on litigation workshops aimed to highlight existing expertise, promote knowledge-sharing and build capacity in specific areas or fields, and advance human and gender rights, racial, social, economic, environmental justice in the Council of Europe region, including Armenia.