The Bar Council of England and Wales (“The Bar Council”) and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) condemn the Zimbabwean Magistrate’s ruling on 18 August 2020 against Beatrice Mtetwa, a renowned human rights lawyer. We urgently call upon Magistrate Nduna –the ruling Magistrate in the case– to immediately revoke the judgment...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) has raised concerns regarding the prosecution and judicial harassment of a number of lawyers and human rights defenders in Bahrain in a letter to the King sent today. The letter follows the recent conviction and sentencing of human rights lawyer Abdullah Al-Shamlawi on 30 June...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (“LRWC”) condemn the mass arrests, violence and excessive use of force against peaceful protesters in Belarus following the contested preliminary results of the presidential election on Sunday 9 August 2020. The USA, UK and the EU have refused to accept...

On Friday 14th August senior human rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan was convicted of criminal contempt of court by the Supreme Court of India. In publishing two tweets relating to the Chief Justice of India and the role of the Supreme Court in the last six years, on his Twitter feed, he was found to have...

The undersigned organisations have been following recent developments in the cases of human rights lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, who have been on hunger strike since February 2020. On 5 April 2020, the Turkish Day of the Lawyer, Timtik and Ünsal announced that they would persist in their hunger strike even if it leads...