The Coalition documents and educates. It does not give legal advice and it does not represent individuals. A person facing removal to a third country, or someone helping him, needs a lawyer, and needs one before the transfer takes place, because nothing described in this project can be done afterwards. This page names organisations that provide representation and the international bodies that receive complaints.
Why before, not after
The reasons are set out under Start Here and The Law, and they come down to one fact. Once a person has been delivered to another government, the courts of the United States have in practice nothing left to give: in one reported case, a federal court denied relief to five protected persons already in Ghanaian custody because it could not order Ghana to do anything. Government guidance has reportedly set the notice period before a transfer at twenty-four hours and in some circumstances six. Whatever is to be done has to be done within that interval, and it has to be done by someone with the standing and the knowledge to do it.
Legal representation in the United States
The Coalition’s general Resources directory lists organisations providing legal aid in the United States and internationally. The organisations below appear in that directory and work on immigration detention and removal. The Coalition does not endorse any organisation and has no arrangement with any of them; the list is for orientation.
- National Immigrant Justice Center: legal services to immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including persons in immigration detention.
- ACLU National Prison Project: litigation concerning conditions of detention and custodial abuse.
- Center for Constitutional Rights: constitutional and international human rights litigation.
- Physicians for Human Rights: medical documentation of torture for use in legal proceedings.
[Further organisations to be added on the administrator’s instruction: the organisations litigating the third-country cases described in this project, and organisations able to take individual cases on short notice. Candidates identified in the sources include the National Immigration Project, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, and the American Immigration Council; their inclusion awaits confirmation of what each offers to individuals.]
International bodies that receive complaints
The following bodies receive communications concerning torture and refoulement. Whether a particular route is available in a particular case depends on the states involved and on procedural conditions the Coalition does not assess here.
- Committee against Torture: receives individual communications under article 22 of the Convention from persons subject to the jurisdiction of a State Party that has accepted the procedure. The United States has not accepted article 22; some receiving states have. The list of declarations is maintained by OHCHR.
- Special Rapporteur on torture and the other special procedures of the Human Rights Council: receive information and may issue urgent appeals to any state, irrespective of treaty acceptance. Special procedures have addressed the United States programme, and transfers to Equatorial Guinea and El Salvador, in 2025 and 2026.
- Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and the national preventive mechanisms established under the Optional Protocol: hold the right of access to any place where persons are deprived of liberty in a State Party, which includes a facility holding transferred persons. The Coalition’s work on national preventive mechanisms is described under What We Do.
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: receives petitions and requests for precautionary measures concerning states of the Americas, including the United States and most of the receiving states in this hemisphere.
Documentation
Organisations that document individual cases of transfer and its aftermath include those listed under Sources. A person who has been transferred, or a family member or representative, and who wishes to have a case recorded, can contact the Coalition. The Coalition records cases for documentation and reporting; it does not take them on.
This page describes organisations and bodies. It is not legal advice, and listing an organisation is not a referral. The Coalition does not represent individuals.