Case work

The Human Rights Law Clinic focuses on human rights issues in the areas of migration law, criminal law and enforcement, police law, and social law. There are two reasons for this narrow focus: firstly, there are shortcomings in Switzerland in the implementation of fundamental and human rights in the areas mentioned. Secondly, there is a need for low-threshold access to legal advice and representation in these areas.

In this context, the Human Rights Law Clinic is always looking for suitable cases and issues. Our goal is not to compete with the work of lawyers, NGOs, or other organizations, but rather to offer additional services in areas where there are insufficient resources available, whether due to the financial situation of those seeking advice or due to high workloads. We are particularly interested in issues that fall within the scope of strategic litigation.

Strategic litigation

In the past, the Human Rights Law Clinic has already handled cases that fall within the scope of strategic litigation. Specifically, this means that changes beyond the individual case are sought, thereby closing gaps in human rights protection and addressing structural human rights violations in Switzerland and in refugees' countries of origin. However, the primary guideline for selecting a case for processing by the Law Clinic is its suitability for the legal education of students.

We see cases that are suitable for strategic litigation due to human rights deficiencies, for example, in:

  • Family reunification for provisionally admitted refugees or provisionally admitted persons
  • Expulsion of persons with minor penalties (third-country nationals and EU/EFTA nationals)
  • Victims of human trafficking in the Dublin procedure
  • Accommodation of children in the emergency assistance system
  • Discrimination against nationals in family reunification
  • Reverse family reunification
  • Organization of detention
  • Differential prognosis for conditional release from prison
  • Principle of equivalence in medical care during imprisonment
  • Information, communication, and contact during imprisonment in the digital age
  • Complaints by recognized refugees to UN human rights committees against their home country

Other case work

We also handle cases outside of strategic litigation. We have defined the following criteria to ensure that these cases fit the profile of the Law Clinic:

  • Human rights issues in the areas of immigration law, criminal law and enforcement of measures, police law, or social law
  • The case must be suitable for training purposes
  • Complex or new legal issues, in-depth legal research
  • No hopeless cases or cases where everything has already been tried and yet another request for reconsideration or review is to be submitted
  • Cases without deadlines or with long deadlines (short appeal deadlines are not suitable)

In the past, we have collaborated with partner institutions in the following ways:

  • Assumption of the mandate by the Human Rights Law Clinic
  • Joint handling of the mandate (co-supervision)
  • Collaboration in complaint proceedings

However, other forms of collaboration are also possible. Due to limited capacities and the fact that cases are handled as part of the university's teaching activities, we are unfortunately only able to take on a limited number of cases.