Longer description of your proposed project

Being vegan is a key action to spare animals, live sustainably and ensure food equity among humans. As such, access to a vegan lifestyle should be facilitated.

However, many local and national authorities make it impossible to be vegan whenever you are a part of the institutions (schools,hospitals, prisons, Armies,etc.)

This is what happened to Mathias (pseudonym), an activist who experienced an 11-month-pre-trial detention and was never granted access to proper vegan meals during this whole time. Refusing to give up on his convictions, he regularly could not eat anything for days, as even the vegetables and starches were cooked with dairy products. He asked the administration about 50 times for proper meals but was never granted an answer.

When he was released from jail, Mathias suffered malnourishment and several nutrient deficiencies, whereas he was in perfect healthy before entering the jail.

After exhausting all the national administrative legal actions, Mathias and his lawyer, Mr Olivier Peter, decided to bring the case in front of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The ECHR already accepted to examine the appeal, which is very noteworthy : the Court declines an average of 95% of all the appeals they are presented, so Mathias case is among the few 5%.

This is a very good sign: it means that the ECHR considers that access to vegan meals while being in a constrained relationship with the Institutions is actually a matter of human rights.

The ECHR’s jurisdiction runs over every member State of the council of Europe : this represents 46 countries, which is much wider than the UE. The Court is to rule about this question : “Is ethical veganism a protected belief?”. If the verdict is favorable, veganism would be acknowledged as a protected belief in these 46 countries.

The AVF was solicited by Mathias and Mr Olivier peter to raise awareness and collect funds for this appeal.

Total costs for the work of Peter & Moreau law firm on this international case, and coverage of our work are 36 000€.

This lawsuit is unprecedented, and it sends a strong signal to national governments and local authorities that vegans won’t get discriminated against without pushing back, because our right to a vegan lifestyle is also the animals rights to live a life free of exploitation.

You can check Mathias’ story on these videos :

https://fb.watch/p4ACGzUs8O/

https://youtu.be/gZkZZfn9qMY?si=Sc-fpDv3QRaH0qVk

March 5th, 2024 update :

We were able to cover all the legal fees and we are thrilled about it! A decision is expected for 2024 (there is no due date like in a trial).

We could still use a small amount of money to communicate about this legal action, and also, if the decision is favorable as we expect, the next step would be to have it translated into national law, so not only is it a jurisprudence, it becomes the law. We estimate this amount we could use at €2,500.

Describe why you think you're qualified to work on this

. The AVF is a historical actor working n the plant-based transition in France : we have been working on supporting individuals on their plant-based journey since 1995, and we have included collective catering and political campaigns since 2018.

in addition to our 200 volunteers promoting a plant-based lifestyle through special events, we have 5 professional departments, working on different fields:

- Vegecantines promotes and supports the implementation of plant-based meals in collective catering

- Vegepolitique pleads for a plant-based system towards political leaders

- 1·2·3 Veggie offers vegan recipes and cooking classes at very affordable prices to make vegan food easier to everyone.

- ViraGe is our quarterly magazine

- The V-Label certifies vegan and vegetarian products

Our wide range of skills and our expertise is what made Mr Peter ask us to be a partner on the current appeal.

As for our references, you can ask Pro Veg, Convergence Animaux Politique (CAP) or the Portuguese Vegetarian Association (AVP) who are dear partners - contacts on demand

. As an individual, I am deeply committed to the animal movement : I have been vegan for 9 years, decided to specialize in nutrition to be able to spread veganism and dedicate my time and my work to it.

In addition to working for the AVF, I volunteered for Futur Asso's web media, as well as for Association Co&xister which is an animal sanctuary that also helps farmers to transfarm. Lately, I've also been volunteering with a small antispeciest political party (REV - Révolution Écologique pour le Vivant).

Other ways I can learn about you

My personal social medias :

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/astrid_prevost_nutritherapie/

Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/in/astrid-prévost-312343149/

Some articles I wrote :

- About children being forced to eat meat in schools - https://revolutionecologiquepourlevivant.fr/blog/des-enfants-forces-de-manger-de-la-viande-nous-disons-non-a-ces-pratiques-discriminantes-et-ecocidaires

- About the language used to describe animal farming and animal products - https://revolutionecologiquepourlevivant.fr/blog/et-mon-cul-cest-du-poulet-reflexion-sur-la-semantique-agricole-par-astrid-prevost

- About Transfarmation - https://revolutionecologiquepourlevivant.fr/blog/sortir-de-lelevage-une-solution-souhaitable-y-compris-pour-les-eleveurses

How much money do you need?

€2,500 for communication fees, including media and social media communication, and also organizational meeting with other European NGOs from other country to publicize about the decision and think together how we can best have it applied in our countries.

Links to any supporting documents or information

I add it because jurists and lawyers interested in the case have asked me for it : here is the admissibility order of the appeal, proving that the ECHR accepted to rule on the case (it is in French but you can translate to through Deepl if needed).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zsQ5712ZMAN_qr9FnYme6NK191LyD2mh/view?usp=share_link

This document is for the use of the persons who will rule on the grants attribution only, and is not intended to be made public.

Estimate your probability of succeeding if you get the amount of money you asked for

Our definition of success is a favorable decision from the Court.

With a proper funding for the law firm's work, we estimate our chances to succeed at 80%, and we already succeeded in this part of the funding. Of course, we could still face a surprising decision, but the fact that the ECHR took the case, and that they seem to be really interested in it presage good chances of winning.

If we don't succeed through a favorable verdict, this case would still set a precedent about veganism. Regardless of the verdict itself, this case opens the road for other cases to come for vegan parents whose children are forced to eat meat in schools for example, or vegan students forced to use animal products in dietician degree classes, or forced to perform animal experiments under the threat to fail their exam.