The principal findings of Open Society Justice Initiative on Insights from Global Experience of Strategic Litigation Impacts state; ‘If the arsenal for defending human rights globally is made up of diverse swords and shields, one of the most effective – and controversial – is strategic humans rights litigation.

Just for Kids law, a UK based NGO, has been using strategic litigation as a tool in its arsenal for social change for children and young people for many years.

In 2017 the Paul Hamlyn Foundation commissioned an evaluation of Just for Kids Law third party intervention in the 2015 UK Supreme Court case R (Tigere) v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills [2015 UKSC 57].

The report by Dr Lisa Vanhala of University College London, Case Study of Just for Kids Law Strategic Intervention in the UK Supreme Court,concludes with recommendations of ‘a number of key lessons [that] have emerged’. Offering a preliminary framework for organisations who are ‘generally open to the idea of using strategic legal action.’ Those recommendations include more detailed consideration of:

1. Initiation: how to identify a legal problem and a legal case
2. Communications and Campaigning and
3. Embedding the Changes (legacy activities).

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation thought the recommendations from the evaluation may be useful as tools more broadly for those considering strategic litigation. In conjunction with animator Zuhura Plummer and the young people involved in the Tigere intervention, Just for Kids Law have co-created 3 animations exploring these three recommendations in more detail.

Members of civil society who are thinking about litigating to achieve their social goals can consider these issues in more detail through the animations.

The three animations can be found here https://www.justforkidslaw.org/news/new-animations/