On the Third Anniversary of the Massacre at Sinjar, the Global Justice Center and Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales Call for Justice for the Yazidi Genocide

Today is the third anniversary of the massacre at Mount Sinjar where ISIS fighters murdered thousands of Yazidi men and enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and girls. Despite the fact that the UN and the European Parliament have accepted that crimes committed against the Yazidis constitute genocide, there has not been a single prosecution of...

BHRC calls on Russian authorities to uphold religious freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales has issued a formal statement expressing serious concern over the Russian Supreme Court’s recent ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses. On 20 April 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court upheld an application by Russia’s Ministry of Justice to declare the Jehovah’s Witnesses Administrative Center an extremist organisation and to ban its...

BHRC responds to latest delay in Aya Hegazy case

After 1156 days on pre-trial detention, Aya Hegazy will have to wait a further 3 weeks to learn her fate, along with her co-defendants in the Belady Foundation trial in Cairo. The judge had previously indicated that he was ready to deliver his verdict on 23 March 2017. Instead, and without giving any reasons, he...

BHRC legal observers call on Turkey to ensure fair trial rights of Taraf journalists

The Bar Human Rights Committee has published a statement of concern calling on the Turkish authorities to protect the fair trial rights of five journalists from the newspaper Taraf. Former Taraf editor Ahmet Altan, deputy editor Yasemin Çongar and journalists Mehmet Baransu. Yıldıray Oğur and Tuncay Opçin currently face unparticularised charges relating to terrorism and security....

Bar Human Rights Committee and Bar Council urge Theresa May to raise Turkish human rights concerns in Erdoğan meeting

The Bar Human Rights Committee and the Bar Council have today urged Prime Minister Theresa May to address ongoing human rights violations in Turkey when she meets with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, BHRC and the Bar Council highlight the systematic persecution of lawyers and judges...