The Lab

Tackling mass crimes and serious human rights violations requires a coordinated, multifaceted approach – one that combines comprehensive investigations conducted according to the highest legal standards and navigation of complex legal landscapes. Governments and transnational corporations can readily access the necessary legal services and expertise to implement this type of approach. However, too often, the communities most impacted by mass crimes and human rights violations do not have the same access – resources are limited, knowledge sharing is scarce, and legal expertise is siloed. The Lab aims to “level the playing field” and provides a safe space for Members, partners, and impacted communities to collaborate, develop, and test innovative legal solutions.

We INVESTIGATE mass crimes and human rights violations.

We PRESERVE evidence to build cases and establish an accurate historical record.

We LITIGATE, together with survivors, Members, and NGO partners, using multiple accountability avenues.

Our Services

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Investigations

Our multidisciplinary teams work alongside NGO partners, communities, and human rights defenders to gather intelligence and document and investigate mass crimes and human rights violations. We apply the highest standards – international criminal standards – in our investigations and build case files identifying potential perpetrators and linking them to the crimes or abuses.

Accountability Mapping

Leveraging our Members’ varied subject-matter and jurisdictional expertise and lived experiences, we map all available accountability avenues, ranging from pursuing legal actions at national, regional, and international levels to documenting violations so that survivors can create an accurate historical record. We assess the feasibility of each accountability avenue and develop a comprehensive legal strategy for implementation.

Litigation

We build multidisciplinary teams to support litigation and accountability efforts on behalf of communities most affected by armed conflict, mass crimes, environmental destruction, and human rights violations. Our teams may consist of specialized investigators, subject-matter legal experts, country or contextual experts, lawyers with access to relevant jurisdictions, and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS).

Our Process

Our Investigations

Documenting closing civic space and serious human rights violations

In recent years, autocrats around the world have intensified crackdowns on human rights defenders and independent journalists, narrowing civic space and undermining democratic norms. Sadly, too few of these abusers or their cronies ever face sanction; victims are typically left without any remedy. However, impunity for the powerful need not be a given. Our distinct teams of investigators conduct investigations to an international criminal law standard, uploading open and closed-source evidence onto a secure database. Our analysts collate and analyze this evidence according to relevant legal frameworks, creating case files that become the springboards for a range of national and international accountability options.

Building and analyzing datasets to disrupt criminal networks and their profits

Human trafficking, environmental crimes, atrocities, and money laundering are big businesses, generating billions of dollars each year. Our financial investigators and analysts build and analyze disparate and complex datasets of illicit financial activity linked to these serious crimes. Using specific digital tools that show relationships and network connections and applying intelligence analysis methodology in a customized virtual platform, we develop actionable intelligence leads, build typologies, and identify key trends and red flags. The integration of the datasets allows our specialized teams to unlock new investigation potential that would not otherwise be possible and collaborate with stakeholders from the public and private sector.

Our Litigation

Leading a landmark criminal case on behalf of Sudanese victims against a French financial institution

In partnership with FIDH, our Members have spearheaded a landmark criminal case on behalf of Sudanese victims against French bank, BNP Paribas. In September 2019, nine victims and two French NGOs filed a criminal complaint against the bank alleging financial crimes and complicity in torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by the Sudanese government from at least 2002 to 2009. In August 2020, two investigating judges in Paris opened an official investigation into the bank’s role in the crimes. In March and December 2022, FIDH and LexCollective supported five victims and one witness in providing their testimony to the investigating judges. The investigation is ongoing.

Cross-border compensation for a survivor of online and offline child sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in Cambodia

Our Founding Firm Member Monica Sok, our NGO partner APLE, and pro bono lawyers in Australia achieved one of the highest known awards of compensation (via a settlement) in cross-border litigation in Australia on behalf of a Cambodian survivor of online and offline child SEA. This case was the first time that an Australian court had dealt with the issue of whether it could order compensation be paid to overseas victims. In addition to legal support, our specialized litigation team provided the survivor with psychosocial support and financial planning resources.

Crimes against humanity in the Brazilian Amazon

Co-Executive Director Richard Rogers and Founding Firm Member Paulo Busse, in conjunction with Climate Counsel, Greenpeace Brasil, and Observatório do Clima, filed a Communication to the Prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court related to crimes against humanity committed during the more than 12,000 land and water-related conflicts in the Brazilian Amazon over the past 10 years. The Communication was accompanied by an online platform developed by our partner, INTERPRT, and Climate Counsel, that hosts testimonies of survivors, photographic evidence, 3D reconstructions of crime scenes, visualizations of data, analysis of satellite images, and deforestation data.

If you require investigative or legal support from our Members, or if you are an NGO and would like to refer a legal matter to our network, please contact us at info@lexcollective.com.

10

conflict zones analyzed

15,000+

unique pieces of evidence collected and preserved

10

accountability avenues pursued

THE LAB