European Human Rights Advocacy Centre

EHRAC is an independent legal centre based in London, UK, that defends those affected by human rights abuses before international courts, when they have not been able to secure justice in their country. Since its inception in 2003, EHRAC has been working in partnership with civil society in Russia to litigate cases of enforced disappearances perpetrated by Russian forces in Chechnya and surrounding regions before the European Court of Human Rights. EHRAC has since continued its advocacy before both the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

EHRAC has developed the Enforced Disappearances Legal Database (EDLD) – the first online resource to compile international jurisprudence, legislation, and soft law on enforced disappearance, promoting understanding of this complex human rights violation and its development in international human rights law.

Its aim is to assist lawyers and relatives in bringing their cases before international mechanisms, enabling advocates from Europe and around the world to undertake targeted legal research and comparative jurisdictional analysis on the offence of enforced disappearances. It allows for thematic and key-term searches across jurisdictions and is available in four languages: English, Russian, French and Spanish.