Bar Human Rights Committee Chair Kirsty Brimelow QC, Membership Secretary Grainne Mellon and Executive Officer Amanda June Chadwick attended the 58th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association at the invitation of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, OON, SAN. Ms Brimelow QC also spoke at the conference at the plenary session...
BHRC submissions to the Foreign Affairs Committee on two inquiries into the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have been published by the Foreign Affairs Committee. The first inquiry, whose oral hearings took place on 12 June, involved a review of the human rights work of the FCO. In its submission, BHRC raised...
BHRC has issued a statement raising concern for the continued detention of human rights lawyers on the third anniversary of the 709 Crackdown, a nationwide programme of arrests beginning on 9 July 2015. During the period of a few weeks, nearly 250 Chinese human rights lawyers, their staff and human rights defenders were arrested and...
BHRC has issued the following statement regarding the ongoing trial observation in Kuwait: The Trial The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is monitoring the trial of 70 Kuwaiti defendants convicted of public order offences following protests at the Kuwaiti National Assembly in 2011. 13 of those convicted are current or former members of...
BHRC has issued an interim report regarding the case of 70 Kuwaiti defendants convicted of public order offences following protests at the Kuwaiti National Assembly in 2011 and sentenced to prison terms of up to nine years. Weston and Weatherby in the Court of Cessation with the father and lawyer of one of the accused and...
BHRC has published its interim trial observation report on the Zaman trial, in which 10 journalists and one lawyer are being tried on terrorism charges in Turkey. Verdicts are due for all 11 defendants this week. Vice Chair Schona Jolly QC observed two tranches of the trial in Istanbul in May and June, 2018. Although this is...
Following its recent joint side event in Geneva, BHRC joined 5 other organisations in oral statements at the 38th Session of the Human Rights Council urging the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers to address the situation of the legal profession in Turkey and Poland. The statement, read by a representative...
The Bar Human Rights Committee is proud to partner with Manchester School of Law and congratulates the master and PHD students who have been successful in their selection to write a blog on International Human Rights. The blog’s current focus will be on the human rights breaches in Turkey. The project was devised by BHRC...
Written by: Işıl Aral, Daniel Bramhall, Andrew Stevens, Joseph Lynch-Watson Introduction Osman Kavala has been a prominent figure in Turkish civil society since the 1980s, founding a plethora of cultural and arts-based initiatives. Along with this, he is well known for his role at the head of the Kavala Group companies following his attendance...
In response to the unprecedented threat against the rights to freedom of expression and fair trials, ARTICLE 19 and the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on monitoring trials in Turkey. As part of that agreement, ARTICLE 19 and BHRC are monitoring have already monitored two hearings in the trial against...
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.