Pathways to Justice Toolkit
Systemic and transformative change happens when impacted people take collective action and collaborate with others to build power to challenge the root of their oppression. With this research, we (co)create and share information, strategies, and best practices designed to protect the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the digital sphere through strategic collective action litigation.
With this digiRISE Pathways to Justice toolkit, the DFF seeks to build capacity and raise awareness amongst litigators of different legal frameworks that could be used to protect and promote digital rights. The Pathways to Justice Toolkit aims to provide civil society organisations (CSOs), litigators, and activists with concrete advice and guidance on the potential of strategic litigation for protecting digital Charter rights.
Toolkit design by Studio Kitschen & illustrations by Tessa Curran
What are the primary objectives of the Pathways to Justice toolkit?
- to provide concrete procedural information on the judicial pathways that are available to CSOs, activists, and litigators to invoke the EU Charter;
- to articulate how strategic litigation before different courts, independent authorities, or other actors can be impactful when combined with other organising strategies; and
- to provide case studies, takeaways, and reference resources (including a list of strategic litigation guidelines, expert tips, and examples) to assist CSOs, activists, and litigators as they embark upon strategic litigation.
Which pathways to justice can I find in the toolkit?
This toolkit presents the following pathways to justice:
- the Court of Justice of the European Union
- national courts
- National Human Rights Institutes or Ombuds institutions
- Representative actions
- and quasi-judicial pathways such as complaints to Data Protection Authorities and Digital Service Coordinators, as well as other options provided by legal instruments such as the Digital Services Act.
What are the resources that Pathways to Justice Toolkit draws from?
This Pathways to Justice Toolkit was designed to support and guide you as you embark on your litigation strategy building. It shone a light on the complex matrix of decision-making processes in the different pathways that are available for enforcing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The toolkit is the result of the digiRISE research project which included the creation of a multi-country network of legal experts, litigators, academics, and civil society representative. It draws from digiRISE activities such as the Digital Rights are Charter Rights essay series, the Collective Redress comparative research project that spans across ten EU Member States, the Available Judicial Pathways comparative research project, and finally, two installments of the digiRISE Speaker Series (Digital Rights are Charter Rights & Collective Redress – Lessons from Around the Globe). The toolkit has benefitted from discussions amongst members of our network at the digiRISE workshops that took place from 2022 until today.
Developing Information, Guidance, and Interconnectedness for (Charter) Rights Integration in Strategies for Enforcement
digiRISE is funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme. If you have any comments or questions, you can write to us at alexandra@digitalfreedomfund.org
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CERV Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.