To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

ECCHR has worked internationally for 15 years with partners and those affected to ensure that those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual violence, pushbacks of migrants and refugees, and economic exploitation are held legally accountable. Over the years, ECCHR has not only developed (legal) expertise, but has also generated a tremendous amount of knowledge.

CHRA support helped ECCHR develops the Living Open Archive, a multimedia web platform which aims to document and archive the knowledge generated by the organization, embed it within a larger context, and also reveal the connections between diverse subjects through developing meta-narratives.

The challenging task of the project is to create a vivid, living archive, as opposed to a linear or static one. Through utilizing diverse formats and media, ECCHR hopes to reach a broad spectrum of groups and individuals, while continually reinventing the composition of the Living Open Archive.

As part of the project, ECCHR has also launched a book series which aims to examine the potentials and pitfalls of human rights work in a shifting political and legal landscape. Uniting diverse voices across disciplinary boundaries, each book explores overlapping political, economic, social and environmental challenges worldwide, as well as strategies to combat them. In the first two books, ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck discusses the role of art in political and legal interventions with artist and activist Tomás Saraceno, and ECCHR Legal Director Miriam Saage-Maaß and GLAN Founding Director Gearóid Ó Cuinn explore new systemic approaches toward combating corporate power.