- MISSION, VISION AND PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVES:
- The institutional mission of CEJIL is to contribute to the full enjoyment of human rights in the Americas through the effective use of the tools of the Inter-American System and international human rights law.
- CEJIL aspires for its work to help forge the ideal of a hemisphere where people live freely, without fear or want, as established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Preamble of the American Convention of Human Rights.
- In this regard, CEJIL has established the following priority objectives: … (full text about).
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CEJIL: The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that protects and promotes human rights in the Americas through the strategic use of the tools offered by international human rights law.
CEJIL offers advice and free legal representation to victims of human rights abuses—and to the organizations that defend their causes—when justice proves impossible to achieve in their own countries. In this effort, CEJIL prioritizes the hemisphere’s most persecuted and excluded populations. Central to CEJIL’s work is the role of the victims and our collaboration with human rights defenders and partner organizations, with whom we litigate, coordinate our efforts and share our achievements.
The work of CEJIL has a concrete impact on the realities of the hemisphere and the lives of those who live in it. For example, the outcomes of cases litigated by CEJIL have compelled courts in cease applying an amnesty law covering perpetrators of grave human rights violations in Peru, spurred the approval of the first law on violence against women in Brazil, identified the necessary reforms to the military justice system in Chile, and helped suspend the application of the death penalty in Guatemala.
Currently, CEJIL litigates 223 cases before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, representing 13,455 victims. These cases cover more than 30 different issues, including massacres, violence against women, indigenous rights, children’s rights, forced disappearances, freedom of expression and labor rights.
In 2008 and 2009 alone, CEJIL obtained US$18,9 million in reparations on behalf of victims.
CEJIL’s experience allows the organization to carry out various kinds of training for human rights defenders. CEJIL also produces publications on a wide variety of topics, with the aim of broadening the understanding of the tools offered by international human rights law and the regional human rights system while furthering the implementation of international standards at the domestic level.
At the same time, CEJIL monitors the performance of the political bodies of the Organization of American States (OAS), advocating greater dialogue, transparency and effectiveness in the interest of the protection of human rights.
CEJIL has consultative status before the OAS and the United Nations (UN), and observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.