Former Soviet Union region.


Running strategic climate litigation.

Conducting legal research about the intersection between human rights and climate change.

Providing legal advice, information and advocacy to those fighting climate change.

Providing legal information and advice to those affected by a natural disaster.

Providing community legal education.


IPHR’s Human Rights Impact Hub provides local lawyers and environmental defenders with complementary capacity-building opportunities, knowledge-sharing resources, legal assistance, and funding to use litigation as a tool to tackle environmental and climate issues and strengthen the accountability of perpetrators.

As part of the Hub, IPHR conducts legal training to help lawyers acquire a strong understanding of:

-international environmental and climate law;

-environmental legislation in former Soviet Union countries;

-the environmental dimension of human rights through an analysis of the European Convention of Human Rights and UN Treaty Bodies;

-European Union law;

-and International Criminal Law.

These modules train participants to develop the necessary practical skills to use different legislation, regulations and enforcement mechanisms in the specific context of environmental harm, and identify windows of opportunity to seek justice on behalf of victims.

After training, IPHR then supports these lawyers as they engage in real-life assignments thanks to an individual mentoring system. IPHR legal experts provide these lawyers with legal advice and assistance on a case-by-case basis during the process of identifying litigation entry points, building a legal argument, framing a complaint and filing it to appropriate bodies. The project began in 2020. IPHR has trained dozens of lawyers and is now helping local lawyers at the litigation stage.