In these times of ever-rising organised racist violence, discrimination, socio-economic cutbacks and the climate crisis, communities already affected by racial, social and economic injustice are faced with a further myriad of challenges. Yet they continue to organise, mobilise and campaign for justice and against the pushback on democracy, and civil and political rights.
It’s crucial for funders to urgently pivot their approaches to tackle this current moment by assisting communities to use all the tools in the toolbox for systemic change. This includes the law and the courts, which too often are the last check and balance on the ongoing erosion of basic rights.
The intersectionality of injustice
Communities facing racial, social and economic injustices don’t experience these as single issues. They are interrelated and intersectional, and are felt and experienced all at once. This was underscored by the findings of expansive community consultations spanning the Council of Europe region undertaken by Systemic Justice.
To take climate justice as one example: racialised groups, those who are socially disadvantaged, and people with disabilities, are often disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis and environmental issues. In London, for instance, areas with high Black populations have had to deal with the most polluted air for years. Such communities are also faced with multiple other disadvantages, including discriminatory policing and poorer healthcare outcomes, and at the same time are often underrepresented in policy-making and litigation. (2)
The current moment
We are in the midst of an increasingly hostile political climate across Europe, and globally, with the rise of the far right pushing racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence; and the adoption of more extreme policies and laws by mainstream parties. There has been an increase in both traditional forms of racism, racial discrimination and racist violence, but also in what is sometimes termed contemporary racism. (3) Examples include Islamophobia and ‘area-based discrimination.’ The latter is where majority ethnic minority neighbourhoods are subjected to extraordinary laws, policies and practices on the basis of seemingly neutral justifications such as social cohesion, security and the protection of national values.
The starkest example is perhaps Denmark’s “Ghetto Package” of laws. In the name of integration, it seeks to “eradicate” neighbourhoods with the determining feature that most residents are of “non-Western” background. This has led to thousands across the country losing their family homes. Although this is an outrageous piece of legislation that has been denounced by international monitoring bodies, it is reflective of trends across the whole region. It has also inspired copycat plans in other countries. In June last year, for example, Kemi Badenoch indicated that she would consider replicating the law in the United Kingdom. This was despite the fact that it had already been condemned by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as directly racially discriminatory.
While shocking, this should not be surprising. We know that politicians from across Europe and the UK regularly convene to share tactics and ‘learn’ from each other. Taking two more examples from Denmark alone, in 2022 Denmark issued a joint statement with Rwanda for the processing of asylum seekers; and in 2025 the UK and Danish prime ministers wrote a joint op-ed calling for the watering down of the European Convention on Human Rights’ protections for asylum seekers.
Such measures are reflective of the general erosion of the rule of law and crack down on human rights, including freedoms to protest and assemble. In the UK, for example, a legal environment has been created “in which the authorities can curtail demonstrations with limited oversight.” This, in turn, has had a chilling effect on the ability of communities to organise, build solidarity and push back. This is particularly problematic given that much of the real systemic change we have seen over the course of history – whether equal voting rights or the end of racial segregation in the States, to take two common examples – has come from the collective power of movements and the cultural, political, and narrative shifts they have fostered along with changes in legal norms.
Compounding these issues are ongoing cuts to legal aid and funding for community support and civil society across the region, particularly for racial justice. This has further impacted both access to justice and the ability of movements to convene and share with each other in the way that politicians have been doing. (4)
What’s the answer?
Through our work at Systemic Justice we have seen that, despite facing injustice and oppression in its multiple forms, affected community members and activists will still come together and refuse to back down.
Recently, a large group sat in a room with broken air conditioning in a heat wave, from 10am to 4pm. They spent the whole day actively engaging in a workshop to expand their tools for change by learning about strategic litigation. On a Saturday. Remarkably, they left still full of energy and determination to connect our struggles and keep fighting. This is where hope lies. In the power of people, their communities and their determination to change the world.
We urge funders to start at that place of hope, join the dots and meet movements where they are, by acknowledging that:
- Racial, social and economic injustice stem from the same systems of oppression, and that community struggles are connected and span across borders. Discourses on climate, for example, must understand the connections between the climate crisis and socioeconomic inequality, disability, and race.
- Courts can provide the last check and balance in this current moment, as a frontier for pushing back on the dismantling of hard-won rights and assisting in achieving structural change. For example, community litigation against the “Ghetto Package” has returned to the domestic courts, with the CJEU having paved the way for measures under this law to finally be ruled unlawful.
- Traditional approaches to strategic litigation have been NGO or lawyer-led rather than community-driven. Restoring power to communities to use the courts on their own terms includes moving at the pace of trust – and systemic reform takes time.
- Although all litigation can be expensive and time-consuming, when serving overstretched and overburdened communities, it is imperative to have holistic litigation plans that provide a bundle of support. This includes trauma-informed practices and assistance with resilience, sustainability, and movement and coalition-building.
- Funders are part of the ecosystem of justice, with their decisions playing a crucial role alongside litigating organisations, lawyers, the courts and, of course, marginalised communities seeking justice. Every part of our ecosystem affects the others and our relationships and partnerships (or lack of) with each other makes or breaks the whole. While funding litigation may have been seen as too risky, decisions not to fund are even riskier, for all the reasons set out above.
We therefore urge funders to pool their resources and share risks. By coming together, the sector can increase both its willingness and ability to:
- reframe funding as long-term investments in long-term partnerships;
- recognise litigation as a tool for change that must be funded, over timescales that cannot be tied to short term project grants;
- provide holistic funding that covers the legal and non-legal needs of communities, and transcends countries and narrow thematic priorities; and
- set flexible impact metrics that go beyond formal legal outcomes to prioritise increased public awareness and shifts in narratives and community empowerment.
Next steps
This may seem daunting to some funders, thinking they have to build an entirely new model of grant making. But there are others who have already laid the groundwork. For example, a UK based funder has shifted its strategy from focusing on the technical elements of climate change (such as mitigation and adaptation) to a framework of resilience. This shift has enabled it to view the climate crisis through an intersectional, systems-change lens requiring resilient organisations and multiple strategies and interventions. This has included long-term funding for Systemic Justice for community-driven strategic litigation. The funder is now advocating for others in philanthropy focused on the climate to adopt similar shifts.
Ultimately, if we are to meet this moment, every marginalised community must be given the necessary resources and support to achieve justice on their own terms and to build solidarity with others.
Our futures depend on them succeeding.
(2) See, for example, Peter, M., Wheeler, R., Owusu, I., & Agyepong, A. (2023). Black Child Clean Air Report. Air pollution in pregnancy: exploring the views and experiences of Black mothers and Black pregnant women living in London. Global Black Maternal Health, June 2023.
(3) European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, Annual Report on ECRI’s Activities covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025 (2026); European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Being Muslim in the EU – Experiences of Muslims, 25 October 2024; Reuters, “Belfast’s minority groups living in fear after ‘racist thuggery’,” 11 June 2026, accessible at: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/belfasts-minority-groups-living-fear-after-racist-thuggery-2026-06-11/; and, Glasgow Times, “Scotland hate crime charges hit record high as cases surge 25 per cent,” accessible at: https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/26242761.scotland-hate-crime-charges-hit-record-high-cases-surge-25-per-cent/
(4) The Law Society, “LASPO Act,” 9 April 2026, accessible at: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/legal-aid/whats-changing/laspo-act; European Network Against Racism, “We need YOU: Defund Racism. Defend Anti-Racism,” 18 March 2026, accessible at: https://www.enar-eu.org/we-need-you-defund-racism-defend-anti-racism; see also the European Network Against Racism, “Joint letter: Don’t cut Europe’s investment in democracy,” 14 July 2026, signed by 32 European civil society networks and organisations representing more than 2,800 organisations, accessible at: https://www.enar-eu.org/joint-letter-dont-cut-europes-investment-in-democracy/