Our vision
Justice for all victims of international crimes
Our mission
We strive to support forgotten victims of international crimes, facilitating their pursuit of justice. We focus particularly on genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. Our approach involves:
Documenting, litigating and providing assistance to judicial authorities
We work with victims, unable to seek justice locally, with redress in national and other courts through judicial proceedings cases, whenever, however and wherever feasible.
Capacity strengthening
Sharing our expertise, we bolster the ability of civil society groups and legal practitioners to document international crimes and navigate international justice systems.
Awareness raising and outreach
Through accessible information and regular updates, we inform the public and communities in the countries where the crimes were committed about trials and advancements in international justice.
Our values
Integrity
We are committed to having strong moral principles that unify us as an undivided team, to being reliable, honest, and trustworthy.
Humility
We understand that our line of work is very challenging. Individually and as an organization, we are ready to question ourselves, learn from setbacks and grow.
Perseverance
We are relentless. Even when faced with challenges and setbacks, through discipline, hard work and determination, we never give up and keep going, reaching high quality standards in pursuing and achieving our mission.
Independence
We do not accept funding from governmental sources. To ensure our sustainability, we multiply our sources of funding as much as possible to ensure that we are never dependent on anyone, and to be able to immediately revoke any funding – of any kind – that threatens our independence.
Non-discrimination
Our work is based on the conviction that anyone who has committed international crimes should be investigated and tried before a court of law, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, religion, social or political status or affiliation.
Victim-centered
We are fully committed to placing the rights, safety, security and dignity of victims and survivors at the center of our work. We are fully committed to ensuring their security and safety on a long-term basis.
How we work
Civitas Maxima’s team is composed of lawyers, communication, fundraising, finance and admin officers. We work with a network of international lawyers, investigators, civil society actors and other relevant stakeholders, dedicated to representing victims of international crimes. Our singular mandate is pursuing justice in situations where legal actions have failed or are impossible at the domestic level. We aim to bring perpetrators to justice, even beyond the borders where the crimes occurred, in front of national courts or other courts.
We pursue a victim-centered approach
We pursue a victim-centered approach to everything we do, both internally and externally. Our aim is to keep improving our knowledge and skills to ensure an integrated victim-centered approach in our case work, from investigation to litigation, as well as in our awareness-raising and outreach initiatives.
We are committed to develop our work on gender-based violence
We acknowledge the importance of integrating an intersectional analysis in our work with victims, including specificities marked by gender. We are committed to develop and strengthen the investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence as an intrinsic component in the commission of international crimes.
We cooperate with local grassroots organizations
Since our inception, we have established close cooperation with local grassroots organizations as the foundation of our work model. The Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) has been our sister organization in Liberia since 2012. Our team also collaborates closely with local partners in affected countries to document crimes for every case.
We develop and enhance partnerships
We develop and enhance these partnerships through our Knowledge and Training Centre (KTC) which is specifically designed to provide tailored training and/or mentorship to local groups, helping them to strengthen their skills in documentation and understanding of extra-territorial or universal jurisdiction cases.
