Chair of the Bar Council, Richard Atkins QC, and Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC), Schona Jolly QC, have today written to the Prime Minister of India, to express serious concern about multiple reports of the detention of 3000 civilians, including high ranking legal professionals, in the Kashmir Valley. The...
Update: BHRC received a response from Ms Lam on the 2 December 2019. Click here to read it. BHRC has today urgently written to Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam expressing grave concern at the situation at the Hong Kong Polytechnic and across the city. The letter calls on Ms Lam to take urgent steps...
BHRC is now taking nominations for its Executive Committee until 1pm on Sunday 24 November. All current members of BHRC are entitled to stand for membership of the Executive and/or to vote. This election cycle is for a two year term, running from 1st January 2020 until 31st December 2021. We welcome applications from BHRC members who have not...
BHRC has today received information that: A judge reviewed an application for the re-arrest of Ahmet Altan, one of Turkey’s most well-known writers, just over a week after his release pending appeal on Monday November 4. Altan had in effect served over three years in pre-trial detention. The Prosecutor in the case sought his re-arrest,...
Representatives from the Colombian Caravana (UK) and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales returned to Medellin to continue the international observation of the trial of Santiago Uribe Vélez, the brother of former Colombian President and current Senator, Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Santiago Uribe is accused of heading a paramilitary group in North Antioquia...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales, European Bars Federation Human Rights Commission (Fédération des Barreaux d’Europe) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada have today issued a statement expressing their condemnation of the excessive use of force which is alleged to have been deployed by State security forces in Chile in response to the...
BHRC has issued a public statement welcoming two recent developments in the international community condemning the treatment of Uighur peoples in Xingiang. It is estimated that over 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are being detained in “political education camps”, with millions more subject to restrictions on their liberty. BHRC is deeply concerned that lawyers...
BHRC: The “Gezi Park” trial continues on 8 October 2019 with the ongoing detention of Osman Kavala in Turkey BHRC has issued a public statement renewing its condemnation of the use of terror charges and prolonged detention as reprisals over the “Gezi Park” trial of sixteen leading civil society individuals, including Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, following the...
Joint call by international legal community: Protect Filipino lawyers! Today, Bar Human Rights Committee together with 151 international and domestic bar associations, other lawyers’ organizations and legal professionals from 49 countries around the world called on the Government of the Philippines to take all necessary measures to stop the attacks against and extrajudicial killings of lawyers and to...
BHRC has issued a statement raising serious concern about the response by Hong Kong authorities to ongoing protests in Hong Kong, in particular over credible reports of police brutality, violence against protestors and mass arrests of protestors, as well as the Hong Kong Government’s failure to order a full and transparent inquiry into police abuse....
The Bar Human Rights Committee is the independent,
international human rights arm of the Bar of England
and Wales, dedicated to promoting justice and respect
for human rights through the rule of law.