We investigate serious human rights violations by state and corporate actors
Parallax uses spatial and open-source methods to transform complex investigations into strategic tools for the defence of human rights, bridging grassroots organisations and legal experts to disrupt systemic power imbalances in national and international law.
The apparent displacement, or difference of position, of an object, as seen from two different stations or points of view. — astron., opt.
We take the word as a method. For every official account of what happened, there is another line of sight: from the ground, from the margins, from the communities who bear the cost. What looks definitive from one angle rarely looks definitive from two.
Counter-investigation is the discipline of insisting on the second view.
State Violence at the UK – France – Belgium Border
Our pilot project investigates violence against refugees and people seeking asylum attempting to reach safe haven in the UK via the English Channel: border violence that stems from hostile Government policies criminalising migration.
Hostile policies are sustained by a rhetoric that frames people seeking safety as a “threat”, and the law, selectively applied, provides the State cover. This is a clear example of how the UK ignores or invokes international humanitarian obligations when it suits its interests.
Our investigation is both backward and forward-looking: tracing this violence historically, in some cases as far back as the 1990s, while documenting ongoing harm and anticipating the consequences of policies still being written. It is the first in a programme of investigations through which we are developing a methodology uniting spatial and open-source investigation with legal and policy analysis, producing evidentiary materials for national and international courts and human rights bodies.
To restore that imbalance, we collect and analyse data to identify patterns of harm: forced evictions, interceptions of boat launches, the deployment of tear gas, rubber bullets and other less-than-lethal weapons, deliberate interventions in the environment and architecture of Northern France and the deaths that follow.
We believe these patterns are structural, widespread and systematic: the product of policies that have created and continue to create injury, discrimination, displacement and death for people seeking asylum. Taken together, we believe these actions amount to serious violations of international law, including potential crimes against humanity, committed against displaced people along the UK–France–Belgium border.
Evidence
Develop evidence to the highest digital standards.
Legal Accountability
Pursue accountability through the national and international avenues best placed to deliver it.
Public Awareness
Raise awareness amongst the public about ongoing state violence.
Organisations we work alongside, and coalitions we are part of, to share knowledge, build evidence and pursue accountability.
HRO deploys trained observers to document forced evictions, police violence, and rights violations against people on the move in Northern France.
A campaign coalition of over 150 organisations demanding the abolition of Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency, and an end to the violent border regime it enforces across Europe.
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Our investigations are built on the slow, careful work of documenting harm. Every contribution directly supports our research, our partnerships and our capacity to build evidence for legal accountability. Donations are made by bank transfer.