The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is an association of practicing barristers, legal academics, and law students dedicated to protecting the rights of advocates, judges, and human rights defenders around the world, and to promoting the principles of justice and respect for fundamental human rights internationally through the rule of law. It is autonomous of the Bar Council of England and Wales.
BHRC, along with several Bar Associations and civil society organisations, has expressed its concern in a joint statement about the continued failure to ensure accountability for the unlawful killing of Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elҫi on 28 November 2015, and the lack of due process surrounding the ongoing criminal prosecutions.
Together with the below organisations, a letter was yesterday sent for the attention of UN Special Rapporteurs requesting urgent action in the criminal trial of those accused of killing lawyer Tahir Elҫi, ahead of the next hearing on the 12th June 2024.
Undersigned organisations:
Ayşe Bingöl Demir, the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP)
(and on behalf of the following organisations)
American Association of Jurists (Asociación Americana de Juristas, AAJ)
Association of Democratic Lawyers (Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und
Juristen, VDJ, Germany)
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC)
Bruxelles Bar Association (Ordre des avocats du Barreau de Bruxelles)
Bruxelles Bar Association – Human Rights Institute (Institut des droits de l’homme du
barreau de Bruxelles)
Defence Without Borders – Lawyers in Solidarity (Défense sans frontière avocats
solidaires, DSF-AS, France)
Democratic Lawyers (Giuristi Democratici, Italy)
Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh (DLAB)
European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH)
European Democratic Lawyers (AED)
German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltverein, DAV)
Indian Association of Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)
International Association of People’s Lawyers
International Association of People’s Lawyers-Australian Branch
International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD)
Lawyers for Lawyers
Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers
Nantes Bar Association, France
National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL, the Philippines)
Observatory Endangered Lawyers – Italian Union of Criminal Chambers
(Osservatorio Avvocati Minacciati, UCPI)
Rennes Bar Association (Ordre des Avocats du Barreau de Rennes, France)
Rotterdam Bar Association, the Netherlands
Seine-Saint Denis Bar Association, France
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE)
The European Bars Federation (FBE)
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
The Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW)
The Republican Lawyers Association (Republikanische Anwältinnen- und
Anwälteverein, RAV, Germany)
