Founded in 2003, EHRAC works with partners in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, to challenge serious human rights abuses before the European Court of Human Rights and international mechanisms.
Our mission and team
Our mission
We are experts in international human rights law and international mechanisms.
We support and collaborate with human rights defenders in Ukraine and the South Caucasus to litigate ground-breaking strategic cases to secure justice and challenge impunity. Together we identify systemic abuses and respond to urgent threats to civil society and marginalised communities.
Through joint litigation, advocacy and exchange of expertise, we support our partner lawyers to maintain momentum on these issues even in the most challenging circumstances. Our sustained and holistic commitment results in a more resilient human rights community, improving human rights standards and preventing future abuses.
Our goals
- Through our solidarity and expert legal support, HRDs and lawyers have increased skills, capacity and resilience to challenge human rights abuses.
- Through our trauma-informed litigation applicants’ voices are heard and barriers to justice challenged, leading to increased access to justice for vulnerable and persecuted communities.
- Through our creative and rigorous litigation, national and international precedents are set, leading to increased national protection and raised international human rights standards.
Our values
We are RESPECTFUL in our attitude: we listen and learn from our team, our partners, our applicants, and our peers in the region
We demonstrate SOLIDARITY and EQUITY in our partnerships: we exchange expertise and collaborate flexibly in response to the challenging environments in which our partners operate
We act with INTEGRITY in our decision making: we ensure that we work accountably and ethically, within our expertise and according to the principle of ‘do no harm’
We are INNOVATIVE in our approach: we bring a bold and creative approach to our work whether in pushing the boundaries in our cutting-edge litigation or in problem solving the programmatic challenges in our region.
Our team
Barbara Karch
Finance and Grants Manager
Barbara Karch
Finance and Grants Manager
Barbara Karch joined EHRAC in February 2017 from Against Violence and Abuse (AVA) where she was Administration and Finance Manager for over four years. Prior to that, she was Finance and Administration Officer at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Barbara has extensive experience of all aspects of financial management required by a small NGO, including working with a variety of income streams. She holds AAT Professional Diploma in Accounting and CIPFA Certificate in Charity Finance and Accountancy.
Camilla Alonzo
Lawyer
Camilla Alonzo
Lawyer
Camilla joined EHRAC in January 2022. She is a human rights lawyer with particular expertise in the area of equality and non-discrimination. Before joining EHRAC, Camilla was acting as Head of Human Rights Monitoring at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where she led the organisation’s international human rights advocacy to UN treaty bodies. Prior to that, Camilla was the Equal Rights Trust’s Senior Legal and Programmes Officer, working in partnership with human rights defenders in Russia, Yemen and Egypt to promote the rights to equality and non-discrimination in line with international standards. She has also spent time working at the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia, and for UK-based NGOs REDRESS and Rights and Security International. Camilla is a UK qualified solicitor, having practised as an employment lawyer for a London-based law firm, and has an BA in Law from Cambridge University and an LLM in Public International Law and Human Rights from the London School of Economics.
Charlotta Blomqvist
Legal Project Consultant
Charlotta Blomqvist
Legal Project Consultant
Charlotta joined EHRAC in October 2020 from the Equal Rights Trust, where she worked on various projects related to non-discrimination and equality law, first as a legal intern, then as Programmes Coordinator. Previously, she also interned at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, working in the monitoring and impact evaluation team. She holds an LLB in Law (European Legal Studies) from the University of Southampton, an MA in Diplomacy and International Law from the American University of Paris, and a summer course certificate in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. She is also a qualified lawyer at the New York bar, and speaks French, Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Elba Bendo
Lawyer
Elba Bendo
Lawyer
Elba Bendo is a human rights lawyer specialising in equality and non-discrimination law. For seven years, she has worked alongside front-line organisations and people with lived experience of marginalisation to bring an equality lens to human rights violations. Prior to joining EHRAC, Elba acted as Director of Law Reform for a leading legal advocacy organisation in Canada, where she undertook advocacy aimed at addressing inequities experienced by women and gender-diverse people. Elba has also worked alongside Indigenous land defenders in Myanmar to bring forward a successful public nuisance litigation against a coal mining polluter and to challenge unlawful land grabs by the military. She started her legal career litigating cases of employment discrimination on behalf of workers in situations of precarious employment. In her current role, Elba works alongside EHRAC’s partners in the region to bring cases of grave human rights violations by security forces before the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations human rights bodies. She is also leading EHRAC’s efforts to build a legal resource database covering the subject of enforced disappearances.
Jadesola Ighodalo
Finance and Grants Officer
Jadesola Ighodalo
Finance and Grants Officer
I joined EHRAC in January 2022 as Finance and Grants Officer, previously I worked at City of London Corporation for about 22 years, as an Accounts Officer. I have experience in public sector finance having worked in various sections within the Finance department of the City of London Corporation.
I am ACCA qualified and I have a BSc Hons in Business Economics from the University of East London.
Jessica Gavron
Co-Director, Head of Legal
Jessica Gavron
Co-Director, Head of Legal
As Co-Director, Head of Legal, Jess is responsible for the strategic direction and development of EHRAC’s legal work, leads the legal team and has joint responsibility for EHRAC’s operations. She is a UK barrister with more than 20yrs experience litigating and teaching international human rights law and criminal law. She has litigated cases on behalf of hundreds of victims of gross human rights violations against Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Armenia, including ground-breaking cases on the right to life, torture, conflict, terrorism, repression of civil society, and LGBTQI+ and GBV discrimination before the European Court of Human Rights and UN mechanisms. She has taught International Human Rights Law to undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals at the London School of Economics and trained lawyers from across Europe. She advised on issues of international human rights and humanitarian law in cases arising from the occupation of the West Bank and Operation Cast Lead, Gaza (2009) and started her career as a criminal defence barrister. She has a BA from Cambridge University and an LLM (Distinction) in Public International Law from the London School of Economics. Jess has been with EHRAC for more than a decade and was previously Legal Director.
Laura McCartan
Programme and MEL Manager
Laura McCartan
Programme and MEL Manager
Laura joined EHRAC in January 2024. Her background is a mix of community gender based violence work, and humanitarian response, having worked to support NGOs in six countries. She holds a masters in International Human Rights Law, and previously worked at Media Defence to support journalists at risk.
Laure Trebosc
Co-Director, Head of Programmes
Laure Trebosc
Co-Director, Head of Programmes
As Co-Director for Programmes, Laure is responsible for the strategic direction and organisational growth of the organisation, leads the Programme Team and oversees the day to day operations of EHRAC in areas such as fundraising, project management, finance and communications. She has 20 years of experience of event, project and programme management in the non-profit sector in the UK, France, Russia and Ukraine. Laure joined EHRAC from Lumos, where she managed the development of new programmes for the de-institutionalisation of vulnerable children in Ukraine for 3.5 years. She holds an MA (Hons) in Political Science from the Paris Institute of Political Science and a BSc (Hons) in Russian Joint Studies from the London School of Economics. Laure Trebosc joined EHRAC in July 2014.
Lindsay Owen
Development Manager
Lindsay Owen
Development Manager
Lindsay joined EHRAC in July 2023. She has extensive experience in the charity sector across policy, strategy and fundraising. She came to EHRAC from APPEAL, a charity and legal practice fighting miscarriages of justice in the UK, where she was the sole fundraiser. Prior to that and a career break teaching English in Spain, Lindsay was Deputy Director of Policy and Evaluation at The Prince’s Trust. She has also worked at the Charity Commission and as a charity trustee and chair. Lindsay holds a BA in History from the University of Sheffield.
Ramute Remezaite
Senior Legal Consultant/Implementation Lead
Ramute Remezaite
Senior Legal Consultant/Implementation Lead
Ramute Remezaite is a human rights lawyer, and joined EHRAC as a Legal Consultant in 2014. As a litigant, she specialises in cases relating to protection of human rights defenders and civil society, independence of the legal profession, ill-treatment and torture, ineffective investigations, and restrictions of Convention rights for ulterior purposes, among other issues. Having been based in Azerbaijan and Georgia prior to 2014, Ramute primarily focuses on EHRAC's work in these countries, as well as Ukraine, including Crimea. In 2021, Ramute received her PhD in law from Middlesex University. In her research, she focused on compliance with and impact of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in states on the spectrum of democratisation, with a particular focus on the South Caucasus states. In 2013-2014, based in Azerbaijan, she litigated civil rights cases before the ECtHR and the UN bodies together with local human rights lawyers, and ran a capacity building programme for litigating organisations on the implementation of ECtHR judgments in the South Caucasus region. Before that, she worked as a Program Officer at the Bertha Justice Initiative in London, and at the Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo, Norway. She has also done research and consultancy work for the European Implementation Network, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, Open Society Justice Initiative, International Partnership for Human Rights, Article 19 and other organisations. Ramute graduated from Oslo University, Law School with LL.M. in Public International Law and Master in Law from Vilnius University.
Tina Devadasan
Programme and Financial Advisor
Tina Devadasan
Programme and Financial Advisor
Tina Devadasan is legally qualified and holds a Master in Business Administration, with a strong background in management, fundraising, financial and project management. She was formerly projects officer at the Kurdish Human Rights Project and was primarily responsible for consecutive Community Fund (National Lottery) grants as well as successive incremental governmental and grant-making trust funding.
Toby Collis
Lawyer
Toby Collis
Lawyer
Toby joined EHRAC in August 2020. He is a generalist human rights lawyer, and works on a wide range of cases and legal issues. Prior to EHRAC, Toby worked at a number of organisations including Advocates for International Development (A4ID), the Open Society Justice Initiative, and as an independent legal consultant. He has been a case lawyer on human rights cases, trainer and researcher on strategic human rights litigation and sustainable development, and facilitator of litigator networks for regional human rights fora. He has worked on cases at the European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Committee, the International Criminal Court, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Originally from Australia, in a past life he was a commercial lawyer and clerked at the New South Wales Court of Appeal. Toby is qualified as a solicitor in New South Wales, Australia, and has received the BCL (Distinction) (equivalent to LLM) from the University of Oxford, and LLB (Hons 1) and BA (Hons 1) from Macquarie University, Sydney.
Our Advisory Board
Samantha is a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers specialising in the areas of immigration, public and commercial law. She has been instructed on a number of high profile and test cases in her specialist areas and appears regularly in the higher courts in England and Wales. She regularly speaks at seminars and has published widely in her areas including a monograph entitled Freedom of Religion, Minorities and the Law (Oxford University Press, 2007). She has assisted EHRAC in a large number of cases raising issues under the ECHR. Samantha is a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee.
Kathryn Blogg is a qualified accountant with over 30 years of experience in finance. She is currently serving as Interim CFO at the Gold Standard Foundation in Geneva. Kathryn has solid experience in financial oversight, budgeting, risk management, compliance and reporting coupled with strong analytical skills and personal integrity. Previously Kathryn led the Finance department at WWF International overseeing the financial management of the Secretariat and its country offices, including those in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Prior to working at WWF, Kathryn worked in public practice in Paris and London. Kathryn has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Durham.
Julie Broome is the Director of the Issues Affecting Women programme at Oak Foundation. She has over 25 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors, with a particular focus on human rights and transitional justice. She has served as the Director of Ariadne, a network of European human rights and social change funders, and as the Director of Programmes at the Sigrid Rausing Trust. Prior to working in philanthropy, she managed technical rule of law assistance programmes in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia with the CEELI Institute in Prague and the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. Julie holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex.
Luke Harding is a journalist, writer and award-winning correspondent with The Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief. The Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. His book “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” was published in February 2014 by Guardian Faber, and Oliver Stone bought the film rights later that year. Luke is the author of three previous non-fiction books. They are “The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken” (1997), nominated for the Orwell Prize; and “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” (2011), both written with David Leigh. The screen rights to Wikileaks were sold to Hollywood and the film, “The Fifth Estate”, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl, came out in 2013. “Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia” appeared in 2011. His books have been translated into 20 languages.
Nadia Volkova is a lawyer practicing in Ukraine, specialising in international humanitarian and international criminal law. She is the founder and director of the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG) and a member of the 5AM Coalition. ULAG focuses on monitoring, analysing and continuously assessing the legal landscape in Ukraine through the prism of international standards of due process, litigating strategic cases at national and international courts and tribunals, and advocating for and implementing legislative and institutional changes in Ukraine. Nadia has extensive work experience from the UK, France and the US. In 2015, she started working, domestically and internationally, on cases of alleged atrocity crimes committed in eastern Ukraine. In 2022, Nadia was a recipient of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) Human Rights Award for her outstanding commitment to human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine and internationally.
EHRAC at Middlesex University
EHRAC has been based at the School of Law, Middlesex University, since 2013. We benefit from being situated in the University, and the opportunity to collaborate with leading experts in international and human rights law.
