RECLAIM: New EU Law Helpdesk launched

20 March 2024 | Members' Corner

RECLAIM is introducing an EU Law Helpdesk. It gives European NGOs and civil society organisations the assistance and support they need to fight against government efforts that aim at shrinking the space in which civic society operates.

Governments with autocratic tendencies are passing or working on passing legislation that restricts the operations of NGOs by limiting their access to people, censoring them and depriving them of funding, among other methods. These government efforts violate the rule of law and democratic principles, essentially silencing the actors that hold governments accountable.

RECLAIM is now providing the platform where NGOs and civil society organisations can learn about how to best make use of EU Law to fight against this kind of legislation.

RECLAIM offers tailored legal counselling and follow-up throughout the life of the case. They may help you construct legal arguments, suggest possible procedural avenues or, when relevant, assist you in making your case reach a European institution. They can also provide advocacy support.

RECLAIM focuses its work on national laws and state (or state-sponsored) practices that:

  • Restrict human rights groups’ freedom of association
  • Constrain academic, political or media pluralism
  • Facilitate corruption
  • Criminalise inclusive sex and relationship education
  • Restrict gender studies
  • Limit advertising and media content featuring LGBTQI people and families
  • Suppress legal gender recognition for trans, non-binary and intersex people

RECLAIM provides legal counselling for free.

To book an appointment please click here. Once you’ve scheduled your appointment, RECLAIM will send you a form to gather some background information on your case. Please take a moment to fill it out so they can prepare for the session.