Legal work

The Chechnya Justice Project prioritizes litigation before the European Court of Human Rights. According to statements from a lawyer at the Court, a total of about 200 cases regarding grave human rights abuse in Chechnya had been submitted to the Court by the end of 2005. At that point the project represented clients from Chechnya in almost 100 of those cases cases. 

Selection of Cases

In selecting cases, the Chechnya Justice Project gives priority to serious violations, such as extrajudicial executions, torture, and disappearances. Potential applicants must express the desire to seek justice for themselves or their relatives and be able to produce sufficient documentation or other evidence of the violation. 

Once a case has been identified, the Chechnya Justice Project Ingushetia team collects documentation of the violation and of all prior attempts to seek justice through the domestic legal system. Once these materials have been collected, the clients authorize Chechnya Justice Project’s lawyers to represent them before Russian judicial bodies and the European Court, and a project lawyer assesses the next steps to be taken within the Russian legal system.  In most cases, criminal investigations do not lead to prosecutions. Once the Project establishes that a case will make no further progress in Russia (whether due to the authorities’ failure to open or effectively conduct a criminal investigation, or through untimely suspension of an investigation), the Chechnya Justice Project files an application with the European Court of Human Rights.

For more information regarding the project’s methodology for bringing a case before the European Court of Human Rights, please see the following charts:

Step 1 – Preparing an Application.

Step 2 – Submitting an Application to the Court.

Step 3 - Case-processing Flow Chart