What we do
We work with affected communities to pursue innovative legal actions across borders to challenge states and other powerful actors involved in human rights violations and systemic injustice.
GLAN’s goal is to promote social change through strategic legal action. We seek to use the law in new and innovative ways to bring about legal, political or social impact. Our strategies are diverse and include litigation in foreign and international courts. We seek more than success in a courtroom and our work includes legal actions before administrative bodies and the dissemination of legal analyses. We work with individuals and communities resisting injustice, empowering and amplifying their voices, in order to challenge powerful actors involved in human rights violations. We believe that strategic legal action is most effective when it supports existing justice strategies, which is why we work collaboratively with an international network of civil society and grassroots organisations.
Our work falls within the following themes
Featured cases
Selected News Coverage

Lawyers challenge UK imports of 'slavery-tainted' Uzbek cotton
The Guardian | 21 October 2019

N.Korean worker seeks Dutch shipbuilder's prosecution over labour abuses
Thomson Reuters Foundation News | 8 November 2018

Irish Oil Exploration Firm Targeted In Complaint Over Western Sahara Drilling
Forbes | 24 October 2018

Ireland becomes world’s first country to divest from fossil fuels
The Guardian | 12 July 2018

Italy sued over migrant ‘push back’ with Libya after 20 migrants drown in Mediterranean
The Independent [UK] | 8 May 2018

Children to sue European countries over climate change
CNN | 20 October 2017