Our
HELPDESK
RECLAIM's EU Law helpdesk helps European NGOs and civil society organisations make sense of the tools they have under European Union law to confront authoritarian practices.
.... Checkmate, autocrats,
EU law rules...
how does
IT WORK?
What is the aim of RECLAIM's EU Law Helpdesk?
Several governments in the EU are passing legislation that undermines EU values such as the rule of law, fundamental rights or democratic pluralism. This crackdown often targets the rights of LGBTIQ people, who suffer as well from smear and disinformation campaigns.
Through our EU Law Helpdesk, we help NGOs and civil society organisations understand how Union law can support their fight against authoritarian practices.
How do we choose cases?
We prioritize cases of strategic value to maximise our impact. Our goal is to establish precedents that safeguard the rule of law and fundamental rights throughout the Union.
RECLAIM focuses its work on national laws and state (or state-sponsored) practices that:
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Restrict human rights groups’ freedom of association
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Constrain academic, political or media pluralism
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Facilitate corruption
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Criminalise inclusive sex and relationships education
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Restrict gender studies
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Limit advertising and media content featuring LGBTQI people and families
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Suppress legal gender recognition for trans, non-binary, and intersex people
Furthermore, we work to prevent EU taxpayer money from funding human rights violations or corruption. Hence, we provide support to identify individual and systemic violations of rights and values that may trigger the freezing of EU funds.
Which cases are eligible for our legal counselling?
RECLAIM provides advice to organisations challenging state or state-sponsored human rights or rule of law violations. Our helpdesk does not provide advice to individuals nor in disputes between private parties.
What type of counselling do we provide?
We offer tailored legal counselling and follow-up throughout the life of the case. We may help you construct legal arguments, we may suggest possible procedural avenues or, when relevant, we may assist you in making your case reach a European institution. We can also provide advocacy support. You may find a good example of our work here.
What does our advice not entail?
We cannot represent you before a national court. However, we may assist you with written submissions or pleadings before the Court of Justice of the European Union or the European Commission
What does it cost?
Nothing, we provide our legal counselling for free.
If you are a judge...
RECLAIM does not provide legal counselling to members of the judiciary. If this is your case, we recommend you contact the CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law clinic, instead.
Once you've scheduled your appointment, we'll send you a form to gather some background information on your case. Please take a moment to fill it out so we can prepare for our session
together
WITH
with the
SUPPORT
