14 A practical guide to the Istanbul Protocol – for lawyers Lawyers working with professional associations such as national bar associations or law societies or when affiliated with civil society groups such as human rights organisations, may lobby their governments to adopt new legislation or amend existing laws that incorporate preventative aspects and/or to join parliamentary drafting committees to work towards implementation of international obligations in domestic law. Such advocacy campaigns should be aimed at comprehensively incorporating the relevant standards and may be bolstered by studies that review existing legislation and identify areas where national law and practice fall short of such standards. As part of their litigation strategy and case preparation, lawyers may make reference to • Use international human rights arguments in pleadings and case submissions; try to find parallels between national law safeguards and international law standards • If possible, refer to positive jurisprudence of neighbouring countries, or countries with a similar legal system, in order to encourage judges to accept new or novel arguments • Develop casework strategies that seek progressive changes in the approaches of judges to the question of torture. Always start with more straightforward constitutional arguments that are well entrenched in the national legal culture before moving to other concepts. If possible, select the most “sympathetic” and clearest of cases, where for example most medical evidence is available to prove both physical and psychological injury to make sure both the need of the judiciary to take cognisance of international legal standards necessary for the prevention of torture. If the legal tradition permits courts to invoke international law directly, without need for implementing legislation, lawyers’ frequent reference to such standards will help to ensure that such principles eventually become part of the national legal culture. Even where implementation legislation is required but does not yet exist, lawyers may still refer judges to treaties that their governments have ratified so that courts can in a more general way, interpret national laws consistently with such treaties. In particular, lawyers may take the following concrete steps as part of their litigation strategy: types of torture become part of national jurisprudence • Identify the local region or court that will be most sympathetic or most willing to entertain new legal argumentation and start to bring challenges in this jurisdiction before moving to areas where judges may be more reticent of change • Make sure that your domestic litigation strategy is consistent with the possibility to submit a petition to an international human rights body or court, e.g. if available remedies are not fully consistent with international standards, specify this in the pleadings and also try to exhaust all possible avenues at the national level (like civil litigation even if it is almost “impossible” to succeed without a criminal sentence).