The Bar Human Rights Committee has joined over 200 organisations around the world in signing an open letter endorsing the Nobel Peace Prize for the global community of Human Rights Defenders to mark the 20th anniversary of the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (HRDs). The open letter, written to the Norwegian Nobel Committee is...
Following a mass trial of 759 individuals, on 8 September 2018, the Cairo Criminal Court from a courthouse attached to the Tora prison complex, handed down 75 death penalties, 45 life sentences and terms of imprisonment ranging 5-15 years for the remaining. The cases against five people who died in prison were dismissed. BHRC joins the...
The Bar Human Rights Committee has joined a statement by the International Association of Lawyers calling for President Trump to immediately reunite children separated by the United States government from their families who allegedly crossed the border illegally. The letter comes after many recent reports show that hundred, possibly thousands, of children have been separated...
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...
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 Council of England and Wales, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC), the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), and the Law Society of England and Wales have sent an open letter to Turkish authorities raising concerns over the rising number of cases...
BHRC has sent a letter to the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, raising concern over the detention, prosecution and treatment of Nabeel Rajab, a human rights defender in Bahrain. Mr Rajab is the president and co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. On 21 February 2018 he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, to...
BHRC has signed onto joint oral statement to the Special Rapparteurs on Torture and Human Rights Defenders made at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The statements were delivered by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on behalf of BHRC, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Union Internationale des Avocats...
BHRC and the Bar Council sent a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei calling for the release of lawyers and other persons arrested for their work defending others’ rights. The letter raised particular concern for Abdolfattah Soltani and Narges Mohammadi who have spent their legal careers advocating for the rule of law in Iran. Abdolfattah Soltani, the lawyer and co-founder with...
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.