Evidence across countries
Recruitment records may be held in Kenya while contracts, workplace evidence, messages, payments and witnesses are located in a destination country.
Our focus · Cross-border justice
Rights must remain enforceable when exploitation crosses borders.
GJK works to connect evidence, responsible actors and legal mechanisms across countries of origin and destination so that return does not end a survivor’s route to compensation, restoration and accountability.
Most justice systems are built around borders. Exploitation is not.
Effective remedies require coordination across jurisdictions.
The cross-border justice gap
Harm, evidence, responsibility and assets may be located in different countries.
A migrant-worker case may begin with recruitment in Kenya, continue through employment abroad and involve evidence, payments and intermediaries across several jurisdictions.
GJK connects safe return and recovery with evidence preservation, legal analysis, representation, enforcement and institutional cooperation.
Why remedies fail
A right without a practical route to enforcement is not enough.
Cross-border cases require sustained legal, technical and financial capacity. The barriers often reinforce one another and can make otherwise valid claims impossible to pursue.
What effective remedy means
Justice should restore, not merely punish.
The appropriate remedy depends on the facts, the survivor’s priorities and the mechanisms available. Effective redress may require several measures working together.
Compensation
Financial redress for material and non-material harm, including unpaid wages and losses caused by exploitation.
Restitution
Measures that seek, where possible, to restore the position, property, status or opportunities lost through the violation.
Rehabilitation
Access to appropriate legal, medical, psychosocial and social support necessary for recovery and autonomy.
Legal recognition and satisfaction
Official acknowledgement, truth, investigation and other measures that recognise the violation and the survivor’s rights.
Accountability
Consequences for perpetrators, profiteers, enablers, aiders and abettors through appropriate judicial and non-judicial mechanisms.
Guarantees of non-repetition
Reform of recruitment, protection, complaint, consular and enforcement systems so that similar harm is less likely to recur.
The economic-justice model
The cost of exploitation should be borne by those responsible.
GJK supports compensation and reparations and, where legally possible, the recovery of proceeds for survivor restoration. Responsibility depends on the evidence and applicable law.
The principal practical barrier
The cost of pursuing justice should not exclude survivors from it.
Turning serious harm into a legally viable cross-border claim can require sustained representation, translation, expert analysis, trauma-informed evidence collection, foreign-law research, travel, coordination with trusted partners and enforcement work.
Flexible, long-term support allows GJK to assess cases carefully, preserve evidence, pursue appropriate remedies and test mechanisms that can improve access to justice for others.
Explore GJK’s justice pathwayPartner on effective remedies
Help build justice pathways that work across borders.
Foundations, universities, legal practitioners, public institutions and international organisations can support comparative research, survivor case costs, strategic litigation, enforcement innovation and institutional cooperation.