The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) joins 47 international organisations in a letter to several UN Special Rapporteurs requesting urgent action ahead of the next hearing in the criminal trial of those accused of killing lawyer Tahir Elçi in 2015. Tahir Elçi was a prominent figure within the international and domestic...

Genocides and other mass atrocity crimes have claimed the lives of over 80 million victims globally since 1945. Today the very existence of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Uyghur in China is threatened by ongoing violations including torture, rape and sexual violence, forced starvation, and the deprivation of liberty and dignity. We see the proposed...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) has joined over 100 leading human rights organisations from around the world calling for collective action to address the human rights situation in Egypt at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The groups called on governments to lead and support the creation...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (“BHRC”) welcomes the House of Lords’ approval of the revised Genocide Amendment on 2 February 2021 that will constitute an important step towards ensuring that the UK meets its obligations under the Genocide Convention 1948. The Amendment squarely addresses concerns raised by some Members of Parliament...

Following the killings of two female judges, who were travelling to their place of work when they were shot dead in an early morning ambush on 17 January 2021, BHRC and the Bar Council have written a joint letter to H.E. Afghanistan Chief Justice to express solidarity with members of the judiciary and wider legal...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”), has today written to the Foreign Secretary in support of the “Genocide Amendment” of the Trade Bill ahead of the Bill’s return to the House of Commons tomorrow. In the letter, BHRC outlines support for the proposed amendments to the Trade Bill 2019-2021 relating to...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) condemns the arrests that took place in sweeping raids conducted by over 1000 police officers this week in Hong Kong. More than 50 pro-democracy figures were arrested, under the new National Security Law (“NSL”), which was imposed by Beijing in 2020, including lawyers, pro-democracy politicians and...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is extremely concerned at the threat to revoke the practising licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers, Ren Quanniu and Lu Siwei, in circumstances which strongly suggest that the lawyers are being targeted for their recent high-profile work. Mr Ren and Mr Lu had been...

  We, the undersigned 26 Bar Associations, Law Societies, and organisations supporting the legal profession of over 14 countries, stand in solidarity with our Iranian colleague Nasrin Sotoudeh and other lawyers in Iran who are being persecuted by their Government for carrying out their profession diligently and in accordance with the law. On 13 June...