CIDSE – Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité

Pro Bono Legal Support for a Human Rights Coalition

International law is only as strong as the willingness of states to apply it. When the International Court of Justice issues a landmark advisory opinion, the real work begins afterwards – translating a legal finding into policy that governments and institutions can actually implement. That is the gap CIDSE and EuMEP, working with independent legal and diplomatic experts, set out to close when they approached Pro Publico for help.

The beneficiary

CIDSE – Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité is an international family of Catholic social justice organisations, bringing together development agencies from across Europe and North America. Based in Brussels, CIDSE coordinates advocacy at EU and UN level on behalf of its member organisations, working on issues of systemic injustice, ecological transformation and global solidarity.

The request

The coalition’s aim was straightforward to state and hard to deliver: ensure that EU trade policy is consistent with international law and does not contribute to sustaining an illegal occupation. Following the International Court of Justice 2024 advisory opinion which reaffirmed the illegality of the ongoing occupation and the obligation of states and international organisations not to render aid or assistance in maintaining it – the coalition wanted to convert that legal clarity into a workable EU regulatory proposal: a ban on trade with entities operating in territories illegally occupied under international law.

The coalition had watched several EU Member States move ahead of Brussels, adopting their own national measures restricting trade with entities operating in the occupied territories – a trend the coalition actively supports and sees as a welcome sign that political will exists at the national level, even where EU-wide consensus has lagged. Rather than treating this patchwork as a problem to be tidied away, the coalition’s ambition was to build on it: to consolidate these emerging national approaches into a single, legally coherent EU-wide instrument grounded in the Union’s common commercial policy – the legal basis under which the EU regulates trade with third countries. Before taking that proposal further into the political process, they needed independent legal validation: was the approach implementable, proportionate, and resilient to legal and geopolitical pushback.

This is a hard brief to place. It sits at the intersection of EU constitutional law, trade law, human rights law, and live geopolitics – precisely the kind of request that smaller advocacy organisations struggle to get taken seriously, and precisely the kind of request many law firms are reluctant to touch given its sensitivity.

Finding the right match

Pro Publico connected the coalition with the Brussels partner of a major international law firm with deep expertise in EU trade law. It is worth pausing on why this match mattered. As one of the beneficiary organisations put it afterwards, other commercial law firms they had approached before coming to Pro Publico were “either unable to help us because of the sensitivity of the topic or could only give brief advice due to time constraints.” Without a trusted intermediary, this project might never have found a home.

What the collaboration delivered

The legal team produced a well-researched, elaborate written analysis addressing every question the coalition had formulated – assessing the robustness and legal feasibility of the proposed regulatory approach under EU trade law. This was followed by an in-person meeting to walk through the findings and field further questions, and then an ongoing email exchange that continued as the political situation around EU trade policy in this area kept evolving.

The engagement did not stop at a single deliverable. The relationship between the coalition and the legal team continued well past the initial handover, with the firm remaining engaged as the advocacy effort developed – a pattern that reflects how pro bono partnerships at their best function less like a one-off transaction and more like an ongoing advisory relationship.

In the coalition’s words

The collaboration, one beneficiary representative said, exceeded expectations in every respect: the legal team was “very generous with their time,” delivered “rather quickly and with great quality,” and provided “valuable insights and information we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to obtain.” Asked how the experience compared to engaging any other client, the answer was unambiguous: “this felt like being treated as a genuine first-class client, not simply as a charitable case.”

On Pro Publico’s role specifically, the coalition was equally direct: without the introduction, a collaboration with a law firm of this calibre would not have been possible. It was Pro Publico’s facilitation that turned a difficult, sensitive request into a genuine working relationship with lawyers willing to engage on the merits.

Why this case matters

This case illustrates something important about the value pro bono legal support can add to human rights and international law advocacy. Coalitions working to hold trade policy accountable to international legal obligations often have strong political and moral arguments but limited access to the kind of technical legal expertise needed to make those arguments regulatorily credible. Pairing that advocacy capacity with rigorous EU trade law expertise (free of charge, and sustained over time rather than delivered as a single memo) is exactly the kind of intervention that can move a coalition’s proposal from aspiration to something legislators can actually engage with.

It is also a reminder that not every pro bono match is straightforward. Sensitive, politically live topics are often the ones where independent legal expertise is hardest to access and most needed. Facilitating those matches – connecting organisations doing difficult, values-driven work with firms willing to engage seriously on complex and contested questions – is central to what Pro Publico exists to do.

The coalition’s advocacy work continues, informed by legal analysis it would not otherwise have been able to access. Pro Publico is proud to have helped make that possible.

Pro Publico is a pan-European pro bono legal clearinghouse connecting civil society organisations with law firms providing free legal assistance across European and international jurisdictions.

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