Our story

Accountability Counsel has been defending rights and demanding justice alongside communities since 2009.

We specialize in channels that amplify communities’ voices to be heard at the highest levels of power when their land, lives, and livelihoods are under threat.

But those who most need access to justice often face the greatest barriers to information and have the least political power and fewest financial resources – and without support, they are too often left to bear the burden on their own.

Accountability Counsel exists to bridge those barriers.

Our organization was founded in 2009 with a laser-focus on a powerful theory of change: that money is power, and that power can be held accountable. We started with one community case in Oaxaca, where a hydroelectric project threatened to destroy the Arroyo Sal, a freshwater spring that three Indigenous communities used for fishing, drinking water, and cultural practices.

Accountability Counsel exists to bridge those barriers.

With support from Accountability Counsel, the communities successfully negotiated the project’s cancellation and defended their human rights and environment. They are able to drink and fish from the spring to this day.

Accountability Counsel exists to bridge those barriers.

Our direct advocacy grew quickly, taking on new cases all over the world, and we soon leveraged lessons from that work into systems-level policy advocacy, pushing investors to create new and better accountability tools so communities could make their voices heard.

Accountability Counsel exists to bridge those barriers.

A few years later, we began collecting and analyzing thousands of community complaints about harm caused by international investments, grounding our organization and our field in data-driven advocacy.

Now, we accompany people around the world as they defend their rights and environment at scale.

Join our people-powered movement for justice.