This report outlines the innovative and unique, ethical and balanced method of humanitarian fundraising, which is currently necessary to bring Cases for People’s Rights to the Sovereign International Court of Justice (SCIJ), which is hosted by the non-profit Ignita Veritas United (IVU) as an intergovernmental organization (IGO).
Policy Statements – The general framework of all contractual relations for online transactions with Ignita Veritas United (IVU) is established in the legal policy statements “Terms and Conditions” and “Return and Refund Policy” on this website.
As has always been an unavoidable reality with all legal actions which need to bring a Court Case, filing a Case with an International Court requires covering real costs.
The non-profit Ignita Veritas United (IVU), with its autonomous law firm Magna Carta Bar Chambers (MCBC), currently must use all of its available funds and revenues on strategic projects and further development, and otherwise depends upon grassroots funding from the People, for all other projects.
As a result, advocacy groups for People’s Rights who wish to bring a particular Case to the SCIJ High Court, must arrange for fundraising with their own Sponsors, to enable rare and highly specialized International Lawyers to process, prepare and litigate or prosecute their chosen Case.
The present Terms and Conditions provide the path forward for an effective fundraising process, enabling IVU to use its best legal professionals to provide access to Justice.
These Terms and Conditions of IVU and its Bar Chambers (law firm) are a consolidated restatement of those included in its private mini-reports and video conference presentations, which have routinely and consistently been given to potential Donors since July 2022. Accordingly, while simplified and further explained for clarity, none of these Terms and Conditions are new.
(For details on the costs and fundraising milestones for stages of work on a Court Case, see the PDF mini-report “Group Fundraising for International Court Cases”, which is routinely given to all sponsoring groups and potential donors.)
Ignita Veritas United (IVU) developed a uniquely ethical and balanced method of fundraising to bring Court Cases to the International Court, such that none of the funds are used for hiring lawyers, and all funds are tax-deductible Donations used to strengthen the Court for all Cases:
All stages of legal work on a Case, at a minimum, require funding covering real costs of operating overhead and outsourced support services.
To prepare Cases, the non-profit Bar Chambers, operated by Volunteer Barristers assisted by volunteer support staff, must divert volunteer work away from its own projects generating revenues, from which all net proceeds would sponsor the Court. This incurs real and substantial costs.
The only solution to this problem, is to replace the volunteer work and resulting Donations to the Court from the Bar Chambers, with Donations by the groups requesting a Court Case.
This enables the Bar Chambers to divert its resources to providing legal work on the Case, as “in-kind” Matching Funds for Donations to the Court, to strengthen its capabilities for all current and future Cases.
This further motivates the International Barristers, because they need a strong International Court as the primary basis for their own career specialization, to ensure stable opportunities to make a living practicing their profession.
This “Non-Profit Model” also results in dramatically reduced costs, only about 40% of the standard costs of the “Commercial Model” of hiring a law firm, making fundraising much easier to sponsor a Court Case.
By this innovative and humanitarian approach, preparing each Case becomes a joint cooperation project, with the Barristers joining forces as volunteers and co-sponsors, together with private groups seeking Justice. This creates a positive experience, uniting communities with the Independent Legal Profession representing The People.
Magna Carta Bar Chambers (MCBC) is a non-profit international law firm of International Barristers of the Independent Legal Profession, credentialed and qualified in the neutral jurisdiction of international law, working Pro Bono as unpaid volunteers.
The Bar Chambers has agreed to develop human rights Cases and represent them in the Sovereign Court of International Justice (SCIJ), subject to these Terms and Conditions.
Informal Pre-Approval of Case – Before an advocacy group begins fundraising for a requested Court Case, the group leaders should obtain an informal “Pre-Approval” by email from the Bar Chambers. This is to confirm the strategic impact of the Case, and that it involves international law issues giving jurisdiction to an International Court.  At the Pre-Approval stage, Bar Chambers reserves the right to decline and recommend that the group choose a higher priority Case for best humanitarian impact.
Matching Funds for Donations – The Bar Chambers has committed to provide Pro Bono legal work on pre-approved Cases for the SCIJ High Court, at its own expense, as a form of “in-kind” Matching Funds, in consideration for Donations to the Court, to strengthen the Court with each Case.
Funds to be Used Immediately – Because of the urgency of Judiciary intervention against violations of human rights, during the fundraising process for a case, every small batch of Donations received shall be used immediately by the Court, to cover the real costs of advancing the Court.
Direct Impact of Donations – By all batches of funds from each round of fundraising being used immediately by the Court, even before the Case is ready for the Court to process for Judgment, all small Donations already achieve maximum direct real-world impact of practical results, as preliminary accomplishments supporting the Case.
Purposes of Use of Funds – All Donations are received and used by the Court. Human rights Court Judgments against violating governments or agencies can incur an expected high degree of adversity and retaliation. Accordingly, the Court shall use all funds for the practical costs of operating overhead, developing infrastructure and expanding capabilities, for the purpose of strengthening its security and defensive capabilities against unlawful attacks, and enforcement capabilities for its Judgments.
Costs Under Court Security – Under the 1985 Independence of the Judiciary convention, Judiciary security is strictly “secured by law” (Article 11) for any “internal matter of judicial administration” (Article 14), protected by “Judiciary secrecy” as “confidential information” which the Court “shall not be compelled” to disclose (Article 15).
Therefore, all details of Costs or budgets of the Court, which inherently reveal details of its strategic status and priorities for security and enforcement, must be kept under the necessary and mandatory Judiciary confidentiality. Accounting records are kept for internal official use only by the relevant IGO agencies.
Official Recipient of Funds – All Donations will be received by funds transfer to an official banking account of Ignita Veritas United (IVU) as the intergovernmental organization (IGO) hosting its SCIJ High Court, on behalf of and for the exclusive benefit of the Court.  Donations collected by any authorized partner advocacy groups will be quickly forwarded to such official IVU account.
Confirmation of Receipt – In the event that a sponsoring group collects and “pools” funds from its own members, as a Trustee for both Sponsors and the Court, it shall forward all batches of Donations to IVU for use of the Court. The Court itself will issue an official Letter or Receipt to the group leaders for each batch, confirming that 100% of the Donations collected were in fact received by the Court.
All online Donations automatically receive a receipt from the payment processing system, by email to each individual. Larger direct Donations by bank wire transfer will receive a Letter of Receipt from the Court to the individual or corporate Sponsor.
Target Donation Level – Private groups sponsoring a Case for People’s Rights should plan to strive for a Target Level of collected Donations approaching $200,000 USD. Because of the Non-Profit Model, that amount is a “Target” and not a fixed “price tag”. If group fundraising makes any substantial progress, sufficient to demonstrate popular support and enable significant development of the Court, then the Bar Chambers may proceed to provide the needed legal work at its own expense, to the extent possible.
Potential Additional Enforcement – After a successful Judgment, for some Cases with an expected high degree of political adversity from aggressive or powerful defendants, additional costs for greater enforcement measures may need to be covered. To the extent possible, such situation will be advised in advance. In such Cases, the sponsoring group should plan to also fundraise for an additional Target Level of Donations, of $100,000 USD or more.  The total fundraising would still be only 60% of the standard costs of the Commercial Model of hiring a law firm.
The work of the Bar Chambers on a Court Case is conducted in stages, which directly follow affordable and achievable milestones of the fundraising process. This enables active work to move forward with steady progress, without waiting for complete fundraising results, avoiding many months of delays.
The stages of legal work, following the fundraising milestones, are conducted in accordance with these additional Terms and Conditions:
Legal Work in Stages – Preparing and processing an international Court Case for Judgment is not just “one thing”, such that the project is not “all or nothing”. There are multiple stages of legal work, and several stages can also be done in parts. Accordingly, as fundraising progresses through cycles or batches of Donations, the Bar Chambers will proportionally begin subsequent stages of the Case.
(For details, see “Summary of Stages and Milestones” section below)
Reporting as Possible – Progress reports on stages of fundraising and legal work, or previews of preliminary work, helps Sponsors to continue funding rounds, and can also be used by IVU to attract funding from other groups for the same Case. Such reporting to Sponsors could be expected only quarterly, as some stages of work may require weeks or months, and depend upon forward progress of the fundraising process.
However, any pressures for reporting must not compete with nor risk undermining the substantive work on the Case, which is the intended end result of fundraising.
No Obligation as Investors – The non-profit Bar Chambers and its legal professionals are unpaid volunteers, who have committed to work Pro Bono on Cases as Matching Funds for Donations to the Court. They are not investors, and have not agreed to any obligation to be investors in Cases requested by independent advocacy groups.
Responsibility for Funding – Any advocacy groups which have requested a Case are solely responsible for maintaining their own fundraising process, to enable work to continue through subsequent stages, in accordance with these Terms of Service. In the event of slow or insufficient fundraising, IVU may assist by recruiting other groups to fundraise for the same Case to be completed, to the extent possible.
No Liability for Adherence – IVU and its affiliate Court and Bar Chambers are legally justified to rely upon the contractual conditions of these Terms of Service. As long as the Bar Chambers begins each stage of legal work corresponding to each fundraising Milestone, and IVU otherwise honours and adheres to these Terms of Service, then neither IVU nor its affiliates shall have any liability for any other cause or reason.
This Non-Profit Model, with stages of work following fundraising milestones, results in a “progress chart” showing “where we are” in the process, and also serves as a “thermometer chart” showing the progress of fundraising with practical results.
Each stage of work is defined by reportable or deliverable results, accomplished by each milestone of fundraising, helping a Group motivate Sponsors to engage in the next round of Donations for the next stage.
Requires Cooperation – The Evidence Development stage requires cooperation from the sponsoring advocacy group requesting the Case, which should have volunteer experts or researchers who can provide evidence supporting the Case. The Bar Chambers shall not be responsible for conducting investigations to obtain evidence. The legal work only includes processing available evidence provided.
Sponsoring advocacy groups generally have Affected Parties in the subject country of the Case, who are in the best position to collect and provide evidence. Most evidence is available from public sources and online, and only needs such local knowledge and awareness to identify and collect. However, delays in providing evidence can cause delays in the stages of work, at the Evidence Development and also later stages.
Class Action Alternative – For an International Court Case involving human rights, all interested people worldwide indirectly benefit from a Judgment upholding their rights. In international law, rights are universal to all the People, so do not need a named plaintiff.
Cases can thus be brought as “The People versus” defendants, or IVU can use its public outreach department “Peoples Rights in Action” as the named plaintiff.  This is an alternative equivalent to a “class action” lawsuit, without needing individual plaintiffs to be named nor deal with process.
Affected Party Status – Supporters have the option to be registered with the Court confidentially as an Affected Party, without being a named party in the Case. Registered Affected Parties will receive direct communications from the Bar Chambers or Court, and also receive post-Judgment support for effective use of the Judgment.
Judgment Use Support – The Bar Chambers will provide practical guidance and advisory support to all registered Affected Parties in the Case, to assist in using the Judgment to assert and protect their rights.  This will be provided as an Individual Use Package of “how to” use the Judgment to protect one’s rights in individual cases, with instructions and any needed template letter(s).
All Donations are made solely and explicitly for the agreed and intended purpose of strengthening the International Court. All Donations are forwarded to the Court as an independent third-party non-profit, and must be immediately used by the Court.
Therefore, generally No Refunds are possible, and Donations are Non-Refundable. Non-profit Donations are generally protected by law from refund requests. Refunds are required by law only in limited cases to correct any payment card billing errors.
Regarding fundraising, the only legal obligation of Ignita Veritas United (IVU), and any partner groups conducting fundraising, is to forward Donations for use by the Court. Thus, the only legal liability would be if they did not forward funds in a timely manner. Therefore, the only legal violation would be if significant funds were available for refunds, by merely being accumulated and not used for the intended purpose.
(Click for Refund Policy details)
Any demands for refunds of Donations, or any incitement of such demands, would not only affect IVU and the Court, but would also undermine the agreed collective purpose for all other Sponsors.
Accordingly, such demands would constitute unlawful interference in contractual relations, by pressuring IVU to actually violate the following Four Contracts, which are necessary to give the agreed benefits to all Sponsors, and which IVU fully honours:
1. Contract with All Sponsors, who rely on the condition that fundraising must strengthen the Court and trigger the Matching Funds to prepare the Case;
2. Contract with the Law Firm of Barristers, who rely on the condition of fundraising to strengthen the Court, working at their own substantial expense as Matching Funds;
3. Contract with the SCIJ High Court, which relies on the condition that the Judges must not be burdened with transactional administration tasks for Donations received.
4. Contract with Unpaid Volunteers as administrators, who rely on the condition that part-time volunteer work would benefit the Court, and that double work for unfounded demands of no benefit to the Court would be an abuse of unpaid volunteers.
Therefore, any such demands incur liability of a civil lawsuit for wrongful interference in contractual relations, primarily for the protection of all other Sponsors.
Furthermore, any demands for a “refund” by “chargeback” may be criminally prosecuted as an attempted or completed Theft by Fraud, because all contractual obligations for the fundraising process are immediately fulfilled by forwarding all Donations to the Court, which is the agreed and intended use of funds.
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