Apply for Assistance

Request Assistance from the IJHR Clinic at Allard Law School:

If you would like to apply for assistance with an international human rights case, please contact us using the form below. Please note that your case must meet our eligibility criteria and, due to limited resources, we are unable to take all qualified cases. Also note that international human rights bodies cannot enforce judgements. They can, however, publish public decisions with recommendations for how States should remedy violations of international human rights.

Eligibility criteria:

To qualify for assistance from the International Justice and Human Rights Clinic, your case must meet certain criteria:

Your case must be within our scope of our work. While a wide range of conduct affects individuals’ human rights, we only take cases to international courts and tribunals when these bodies have the power to hear your complaint.
If your case is against the State for violation of your international human rights, the State must have ratified the human rights treaty or protocol applicable to your case. Most international bodies have no power to act in cases where the State in question has not agreed to accept its decision-making authority. There are exceptions, however, which we will assess.
Most international courts and tribunals require individuals to have “exhausted domestic remedies” before they will hear a case. This means you must have taken your case to domestic courts and tribunals first and attempted all available domestic judicial review, including appeals.

If you are in Canada, in most cases this will mean that your case is at a stage where:

You have applied for and been denied leave by the Supreme Court of Canada
Your appeal has been heard and dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada

There may be circumstances where undue delay or expense make it highly impracticable, or even impossible, to exhaust domestic remedies. In such instances, please succinctly state why exhaustion cannot occur and we will assess to see if an exception to the exhaustion requirement might apply.

Please note we do not currently act in United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) cases given our current work with and for the HRC.

When you contact us, please clearly answer the following questions:

Full Name *

Email *

1. What is your claim? (300 word limit) *

2. What State are you applying against for a remedy? *

3. Have you exhausted your domestic avenues of relief?

International human rights claims can generally only be heard by international bodies if all domestic avenues of relief have been exhausted. These domestic avenues include any process available in domestic courts, tribunals or administrative bodies for individuals to bring their claim.

Yes

Please describe all courts and/or administrative bodies that have heard your claim, the date of the judgment/outcome.

Why were domestic remedies not pursued?

4. Which international body would you like to complain to? *

Please note that if you do not address points 1-3, we will be unable to evaluate your request. If your case meets our eligibility criteria, we can assist with identifying the international human rights body with the power to hear your case.

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