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The Centre has since the beginning of 2018, sought to entrench litigation and implementation as a permanent feature of its activities through the consolidation of the work of Litigation Clinic into a Litigation and Implementation Unit with a mandate to engage in strategic human rights litigation and follow-up on the implementation of decisions of international and regional human rights bodies. The aim of the Litigation and Implementation Unit is to strategically use the law through the instrumentality of judicial and quasi-judicial institutions to enforce human rights, prevent violation of human rights and or seek redress for human rights violations. The Unit will pursue litigation to achieve any of these ends but in many instances, litigation will be employed as an advocacy tool to support other forms of advocacy within the Centre or other partner institutions to promote, protect and fulfil human rights. While the aim of the Unit is to seek redress for victims of human rights violations, it shall in addition, always endeavour to seek more structural remedies which have the potential to affect law reform and social change. The thematic concerns addressed through the litigation are linked to the thematic priorities of the Centre gender (women's rights), sexual orientation-related issues, children and persons with disabilities. The litigation ultimately aims to demonstrate the potential and build the jurisprudence of human rights institutions, particularly, African Institutions.

Beyond litigation, the Centre also has a keen interest in how decisions from human rights monitory bodies and courts delivered as a result of litigation or through other monitoring mechanisms are implemented by states. To this effect, the Unit also seeks to conduct research on the impact of litigation in various contexts in order to enhance the use of litigation as well as research on the implementation of human rights decisions to, for instance, ascertain which remedial orders are more likely to be implemented by states and what factors influence implementation in order to enhance the nature of remedial orders to seek from human rights bodies and their implementation.  The Unit combines advocacy and research efforts to enhance the implementation of the jurisprudence of human rights bodies and combat impunity.

The Centre also has observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (ECOSOCC). The Litigation and Implementation Unit coordinates the activities of the Centre to ensure that it complies with its observer status’ obligations before the relevant human rights bodies. 

 

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