Itamar Mann

States always have ways to circumvent progressive human rights decisions.

But the evidence spoke for itself.

With my colleagues Violetta Moreno-Lox and Loredana Lowe, we filed the case at the European Court of Human Rights.

We argue that Italy, as well as Europe, cannot rely on Libyan militia to sidestep their own accountability.

On a high level of generality, the question is when is a point of contact established between a person in need of protection and a state that can protect them.

I've called this moment the human rights encounter.

It is a dramatic moment in which legal commitments are put to an existential test.

It's not about human rights law generally, but a particular person in a particular time, about simple commitments we have to each other as persons.

It is not merely by chance that the sea becomes the environment for this large-scale struggle for liberation across borders.

As for the court, it has recognized the human rights encounter when it's physical and direct.

In the case I just told you about, we go further.

Even when mediated by technology or by proxy forces, the underlying commitments to human rights should not change.

In my organization, the Global Legal Action Network,

We pursue this case I told you about as part of a strategic litigation program.

We consider international law and the laws of many countries.

We collaborate with researchers and activists.

We use cutting-edge technologies to document violations across many borders.

As war, persecution and climate change continue, we believe this strategy will redefine the future of human rights lawyering.

The future of human rights lawyering is not only about a struggle against one corrupt leader or another.

It's also about questions concerning how do we all inhabit this planet together.