Strategic Litigation Hubs

Our Strategic Litigations Hubs bring together those working on strategic litigation efforts to collaborate, share knowledge, and upskill, ensuring stronger human rights protection across different digital rights thematic areas.

Who is it for?

We are open to litigators, community organisers, technical experts, researchers, and others who are involved in strategic litigation efforts related to a particular thematic area. The Hub will have up to 30 participants.

Geographical Scope

Our primary focus is on the Council of Europe, but we are also open to participants working on these issues in Africa and Latin America.

What will happen in Hubs?

A number of activities are envisaged for the Hubs, including:

  • Monthly online meetings;
  • In-person thematic workshops;
  • In-person strategic litigation retreats; and
  • Inter-Hub Annual Meetups.

What are the goals of the Hubs?

  • Foster meaningful and long-lasting collaborations amongst participants;
  • Collectively brainstorm thematically aligned strategic litigation cases on digital rights issues; and
  • Share best practices, knowledge and skills.

Community-Inspired

Since we are community-inspired, participants shall also co-design sessions and activities within the particular Hub based on their priorities and needs.

Phased-Approach

We shall organise knowledge and skill sharing across these three phases:

–   Preparation Phase: This phase focuses on pre-litigation efforts before you file your case. This includes connecting your case to wider human rights and climate justice efforts, as well as broad aspirations and concrete goals for your litigation. It also involves working with and for affected communities, selecting your partners, determining where to litigate, and evidence gathering.

–   Litigation Phase: This phase focuses on developing legal arguments, litigation planning, procedural considerations, preparing for regional court representation, community involvement and how other tools for change, like advocacy and campaigning, reinforce your goals.

–   Enforcement Phase: focuses on post-litigation activities, including judgment enforcement, roundtables and development of documentation for best practices and post-judgment communications.

Specific Litigation Hubs

We shall be launching different Hubs on different digital-rights thematic areas over the next two years.

The first of these shall focus on human rights, climate and environmental justice issues that relate to artificial intelligence, algorithms and digital infrastructure. We are specifically focused on holding Big Tech and other key digital actors responsible for their harmful and unlawful practices.

We understand digital infrastructure to be physical, online and software components that are used to deliver digital goods and services. These include data centres, hardware, internet cables, cloud hosting and services and software.

Litigation efforts include but are not limited to:

  • Legal cases being brought against data centres under environmental law, administrative and human rights law;
  • Cases against the use of digital infrastructure in war, including the use of automated drones and AI surveillance technologies; 
  • Rights of workers within the AI and digital infrastructure industries;
  • Fighting SLAPP cases against environmental and digital rights activists.

You can sign up to our first Hub here.

Interested to know more?

If you have questions about the scope and content of the Hubs, please reach out to Nikita Kekana: nikita@digitalfreedomfund.org or Alexandra Giannopoulou: alexandra@digitalfreedomfund.org .

For technical and logistical queries related to the Hubs, please contact Jihane Jadrane at eventslogistics@digitalfreedomfund.org.   

You can also sign up to our newsletter to receive updates for our new and future Strategic Litigation Hub launches.