Sherpa carries out advocacy, strategic litigation, legal research and capacity building activities, in order to strengthen economic actors’ accountability and build up a legal framework that better protects the environment, communities and human rights.
To implement these activities, Sherpa brings together lawyers, legal experts, academics and many other experts who support its action by putting forward an innovative approach to law.
Sherpa has been working for many years to implement a binding legal framework to make parent and instructing companies accountable for their subsidiaries and subcontractors, particularly when their activities result in human rights abuses and environmental damage.
Sherpa fights Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs): corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. We work notably on ill-gotten gains cases, financial intermediaries liability, the fight against tax havens and transparency in extractive industries.
Whether it is money from corruption or tax evasion by multinationals, IFFs are a major development issue for emerging countries, loosing more than fifty billion dollars each year. These IFFs deprive developing countries from resources that could be used to finance much-needed public services, ranging from security and justice to basic social services such as health and education. While illicit financial flows exist in all countries – and produce victims everywhere – their social and economic impact on developing countries is even more serious, worsening the debt burden of states
Sherpa has already obtained legislative, political and judicial successes with practical impact on the definition of the global economy, such as the law on the duty of vigilance, the implementation of restitution mechanisms for the proceeds of corruption, the conviction of individuals in ill-gotten gains cases, or the indictment of multinationals.
Sherpa initiates ground-breaking litigation and formulates innovative recommendations to transform the law towards greater protection of populations and the environment.
Our proposals for legislative reform to ensure corporate accountability and transparency, and justice for victims economic crimes.
The latest news on our legal actions to make economic actors accountable
Our teams offer innovative and concrete legal solutions
Read more about our awareness raising and training activities
