Centre for Constitutional Rights India (CCRI)

The Centre for Constitutional Rights India is the only institution in India with an exclusive focus on providing education on human rights law and activism. With it’s base in Delhi, CCRI runs courses throughout India in remote rural areas where access to high quality legal and human rights education is hard to find, as well as in the metro cities.

CCRI gives participants access to a wide range of human rights organizations in India and across the world through guest lecturers and invited speakers. Our teachers and trainers are human rights activists, academics, lawyers, and judges from India and abroad, who combine research with ongoing advocacy in order to keep the courses up to date with new developments in the field. We bring theory, practice, and law together into an integrated and multidisciplinary programme.

CCRI specialises in public interest law, social activism and access to justice. We offer a radical and comprehensive curriculum from the perspective of defending poor and marginalized people. Our courses are designed and built around the specific issues and concerns of the time and place in which they are delivered. This is done to enable us to respond immediately to critical situations by providing training to local lawyers and activists on how to use the law to combat injustice.

What you learn

1. How to research and file Public Interest Litigation.
2. Provisions and procedures for Right to Information requests.
3. Landmark judgments and orders and how they were achieved.
4. The human rights based approach to development, poverty alleviation and service provision.
5. Precedents from international law and how to make use of them.
6. Expert views on the background and current state of human rights in India.
7. Methods and approaches for campaigning for reform.
8. Updates and skills sessions on Indian legislation and the impact on human rights.

Who we reach

CCRI courses have a broad spectrum of appeal to a wide range of individuals and organisations concerned with promoting human rights, for example:
1. Social activists, Trades Unions and grassroots movements.
2. International, national and local NGOs and development organizations.
3. Media persons, academics, medical and educational professionals.
4. Lawyers, judiciary, paralegals and students.
5. Law enforcement officers and civil servants.
6. Individuals, families and self help groups affected by the issues.

Legal Aid Clinic

Establishing legal Aid clinics is a practical and much needed outcome of the trainings conducted by the CCRI. These will have the effect of:
1. Practical training for students in representing poor and marginalized people.
2. Community participation in legal initiatives.
3. Increased access to services for poor and marginalized communities.

Contact us on ccri@slic.org.in