If you want to buy 30 minutes of my time for £10 to examine your case and give you advice by email, please click on the above link. If it's a big and complex case, I'll let you know if it needs more time. Remember, I am not a lawyer and all advice I give is not given in that capacity. I merely help guide ordinary people along the steps I have previously followed. If you can afford a lawyer to do all the work, hire one. If not, learn to do as much of the work yourself as is possible so you can pass on a part-completed case to a lawyer or take the whole case forward yourself. It's a lot of work and takes time and energy but, a bit like repairing your own car when you're not an engineer, it may be possible for you to do a lot of work yourself and it may be easier (and cheaper) if you can find a lawyer, to explain the case in "their language" and get them to work with all the preparation you have done.
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You must try and exhaust all other legal remedies before bringing cases at the European Court of Human Rights so first, IN WRITING, go through complaints procedures in the land against whom you have a complaint.
Grow Your Europe will help you identify the laws that protect your rights. You can then cite in your WRITTEN complaints, the legislation you believe the nation against whom you have a complaint, has failed to observe and which protects your rights.
If the actions of a state or it's government have rendered you "vulnerable", document how that is the case.
In my experience, it is unlikely your issues will be resolved but you will at least have evidence to show you have tried to resolve the issues outside of court and it makes the nation against whom you are complaining look negligent.
If you must make phone calls, try and record them and keep a log of the calls. The phone should keep a log of the calls and texts for you but changing SIMs can disrupt that record so try and use one phone number, one SIM card and one phone for dealing with all government departments.
In my experience, often, messages and decisions a nation delivers to you, which it knows are illegal, will be delivered verbally. They don't want to put the decision in writing because it can be produced against them in court later. Ask, in writing, for confirmation, in writing of all decisions you receive verbally. You can then produce in court your written request for confirmation of a decision given to you verbally and the court will ask the nation "where is the confirmation in writing of this decision sent to the complainant?". Do not expect confirmation, in writing, of decisions made by a state which the state knows to be unlawful but your written request for confirmation, in writing, of a decision will, again, help you prove a state has been negligent and make it look "evasive".
Organisations I suggest you contact
1. Grow Your Europe Will give you free advice on your rights. https://europa.eu/youreurope/advice/ They give excellent help.
2. SOLVIT http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/ A bit powerless. I have found they are generally ignored
3. European Ombudsman https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/european-network-of-ombudsmen/about/en I my experience, they are also ignored
4. EFTA Surveillance Authirity (EFTA SURV) http://www.eftasurv.int/internal-market-affairs/complaints/ Again, in my opinion, ineffective (see *)
5. Petition the EU Parliament http://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/en/be-heard/petitions May be quietly effective in that an accepted petition should carry
some weight in court
5. European Court of Human Rights. Contact this organisation once you have worked with other organisations above though there is much useful reading on their
web site. Probably one of the most useful organisations for "ordinary people" (which is why some authoritarian politicians like the UK's Theresa may
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
1. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C143
C143 - Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143)
Convention concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers (Entry into force: 09 Dec 1978)
Adoption: Geneva, 60th ILC session (24 Jun 1975) - Status: Up-to-date instrument (Technical Convention).
Convention currently open for denunciation: 09 Dec 2018 - 09 Dec 2019
Display in: French - Spanish - Arabic - German - Portuguese - Russian
International Labour Standards on Migrant workers
3. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_075619/lang--en/index.htm
UN Convention on migrant workers rights enters into force
.pdf document you can easily save and read offline (in English)
5. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:2551460
C189 - Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189)
Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (Entry into force: 05 Sep 2013)
Adoption: Geneva, 100th ILC session (16 Jun 2011) - Status: Up-to-date instrument (Technical Convention).
Convention may be denounced: 05 Sep 2023 - 05 Sep 2024
Display in: French - Spanish - Arabic - German - Russian - Chinese
6. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet24rev.1en.pdf
Another .pdf document in English
European Court of Human Rights
1. https://ijrcenter.org/european-court-of-human-rights/
A really useful site. You CAN bring a case yourself at the European Court of Human Rights, see below
2. https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home
The official site of the European Court of Human Rights
3. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{"documentcollectionid2":["GRANDCHAMBER","CHAMBER"]}
This site is important. It contains, amongst other useful information, details of cases decided ("Case Law"). Signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights are obliged to follow ECtHR case law and you will sometimes find texts of decision on cases similar to yours. If you can find your own "case law" to quote, it can save you much time and money ... a bit like using the work someone else has done as a template. If a case very similar to yours was settled many years ago, the court may want to know why the nation against whom you have a complaint has not changed it's laws and processes to comply with the verdict of a particular case heard at the ECtHR.
* The EFTA Court is supposed to be a "mirror" of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) but with one, huge difference. EU countries must abide by decisions of the ECJ whereas EFTA countries (excluding Switzerland) must only "consider" the "reasoned opinions" of the EFTA Court. This means the EFTA Surveillance Authority tend to threaten EFTA countries with being take to a court they can ignore. Because they CAN ignore the EFTA court, guess what? That's right, they DO!
I will add to this document as time and energy permits. I hope it helps you. If I don't receive any donations, this page will disappear since I cannot subsidise the costs of the server and internet access indefinitely.