Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights

Thematic Priorities

To set priorities and identify issue-based areas of work, the GSLC convenes Working Groups (WGs). Currently, the Council’s three WGs focus on Legal Status & Lawful Stay, Detention & Due Process and Climate Displacement. 

In 2022, strategy sub-committees drawn from the membership of the Legal Status & Lawful Stay WG and Detention & Due Process WG identified a set of affirmative litigation priorities for the Council’s support and collaboration. These priorities can be found below:

Legal Status & Lawful Stay

• Access to long-term residency status/rights and citizenship
• Discrimination among and between groups of refugees and refugees and other migrants
• Non-refoulement (including extraterritorial application of the norm and broadening its scope via human rights law)
• Rights related to integration (including privacy and family life/unity)

Detention & Due Process

• Detention of children (including family detention)
• Conditions of detention (including medical care)
• Access to legal counsel
• Alternatives to detention (and accompanying conditions and restrictions)

Climate Displacement 

We are currently in the process of working with members and experts across the world to co-create priorities and regional strategies in relation to Climate Displacement work. With support of partners, we are also developing a comprehensive Climiglaw Case Database. This will serve as a tool for informed decision making, effective strategy development and more precise advocacy in this vital area of law and policy. The beta version of the database is currently available here.