THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL GROUP OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE "CHURCH AGAINST XENOPHOBIA AND DISCRIMINATION" PROVIDES LEGAL DEFENCE OF BELIEVERS AND RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS OF THE ORTHODOX LOCAL CHURCHES AT THE INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL

The International Human Rights Alliance "Church Against Xenophobia and Discrimination", which includes authoritative hierarchs of the Local Churches, human rights organizations with consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, lawyers, human rights activists, and journalists, decided to establish a specialized Centre for International Legal Aid to provide legal assistance at national and international level to religious organizations and believers from different countries of the world.

The lawyers of the Centre provide legal assistance to any religious organisations or individuals who send a request to the Centre. Cases with a sufficient prospect for a favourable resolution of disputes by international courts and instances of non-judicial consideration of disputes are accepted for work at the national and international level. 

Legal work is carried out in the following main areas:

"National defense" - if you do not have a lawyer or the quality of work is not satisfactory - we will provide for representation of your case specialists in your country, who will conduct your case under the supervision of our Alliance, by the demanding foreign standards of work and high transparency of the actions taken on the defense for the client. 

"Second opinion on the case": you can send a case that your lawyers are handling, or which has already been lost - to receive an expert second opinion from our specialists on the prospects of the defense tactics being implemented in a particular case or the prospects of resuming defense actions.

"International defense" - within the framework of this direction your case will be prepared for passing through international instances (in case it is still at the stage of national consideration), or will be accepted for direct representation in international bodies, whose mandates are most relevant to the interests of the case. 

The services of the specialists engaged by the Centre are paid for from the donations collected. To donate to the project on the international legal defense of believers and religious organizations, please click here.

For a preliminary assessment of the prospects of international work on the case - it is necessary to send a request in free form by e-mail: [email protected] After processing the request you will receive questions and a list of documents that are necessary to analyze the situation in your case.

Main stages of organizing the defense of the case:

1. legal analysis of the national defense stage

Stages:
- Assessment of the legal and situational aspects of the case, development of proposals for a defense strategy in a particular case,
- assessment of the judicial perspective of the case, including if the case is already at the stage of judicial consideration.

Result: - preparation of a legal opinion on the case and recommendations for the defense.
- If necessary - organization of representation of interests at the national level, involvement of lawyers in a particular country, with the conclusion of an agreement with them on behalf of the alliance organizations to ensure effective control over the process.

2. International representation

Stages:
- Assessment of aspects of the case relevant to the international defense,
- development of a program of international work on the case,
- Representation in international instances on the basis of a contract with representatives of a religious organization or an individual.

 The work includes situations that have not been dealt with in national courts and those that have been or are being dealt with in economic, administrative, civil, or criminal proceedings.