Shaping an intersectional approach to litigation through lived experience

Vulnerability to and experiences of slavery in war are conditioned by intersecting categorisations of identity (e.g., gender, race, age, citizenship, or victimhood) – intersections that litigation strategies are creatively starting to embed and address. Yet, those strategies remain largely constrained by the siloed structure and implementation of the applicable legal frameworks, be it with respect to the different branches of international law that govern these situations (International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law); the range of legal regimes addressing diverse (and often overlapping) manifestations of slavery-related conduct (e.g., Palermo Protocol, Slavery Convention, Forced Labour Convention); or the discrete approach to different aspects of social identity embedded in the proliferation of human rights treaties (e.g., CERD, CEDAW, CRC). These structural challenges are exacerbated by the fact that courts’ and treaty bodies’ engagement with intersectional approaches more generally remains uneven, unpredictable, often non-explicit and mostly undefined.

This project – hosted within the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War – builds on the understanding that the lack of a systematic and coherent intersectional approach to litigating slavery in war can impact survivors in important ways. First, the outcomes of litigation processes may be limited to the extent that some aspects of survivors’ experiences are left out of consideration – courts may, for instance, characterise experiences of slavery in narrow terms (based on the applicable legal provisions), may fail to recognise the multiple rights violations often inherent in practices of wartime slavery, or may establish remedies that do not take into account the intersectional identity of survivors. Second, specific legal strategies may result in the foregrounding of one aspect of their social identity (such as their age, or gender) at the expense of other intersecting factors (such as their ethnicity, or a specific disability) that shape unique experiences of harm and structural disadvantage. This in turn may affect how survivors perceive their own intersectional identity, subsequently impacting how they interact with the world around them once the litigation process is over.

In line with this, the project studies the impact of litigation on survivors’ perception(s) of their intersectional identity, in conversation with them and with legal experts and civil society organisations. It aims to grasp the unique and diverse impacts that litigation strategies can have, and to raise awareness of the importance of intersectional identity-informed engagement with survivors of slavery in war – within the legal process and beyond.

CO-CREATED METHODOLOGY: The methodology will be co-created with survivors and survivor alliances and plans to combine legal doctrinal and participatory methods, including semi-structured interviews and artistic methods to enable representations of the unique nature of lived experience.

SPACE FOR SURVIVORS TO SHAPE INTERSECTIONAL APPROACH TO LITIGATION: The project seeks to create a space for survivors of slavery in war to shape an intersectional approach to litigation that places their intersectional identities at the core, and expands the focus beyond viewing survivors purely as that, to also recognising them as ‘thrivers’, that is, individuals reconnecting with their full potential.

OWNERSHIP OVER EXPERIENCES: It is also hoped that specific activities – including the artistic expression aspect of the project – will empower research participants to claim ownership over their experiences and how these are represented.