The Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, Schona Jolly QC has today written to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary, the Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, to express serious concern at reports that the UK is considering cuts to official development assistance (ODA) by more than £4 billion. Such...
Chinese human rights lawyer Chang Weiping, whose certificate to practice law was suspended in January 2020, was detained by Baoji City Public Security in absence of a notice of detention on 22 October 2020. Chang Weiping’s wife later received calls from the national security officer in charge, indicating that Chang Weiping was detained for actions...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is concerned at reports of the continued detention of prominent human rights lawyer, Hejaaz Hizbullah, under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). We note that Mr Hizbullah is a member of the Muslim minority in Sri Lanka. He has been involved in a number...
The Bar Human Rights Committee has written to the President of Afghanistan and the Chancellor of Kabul University today to express its deep condolences to the victims and families of those injured or killed in the attack at Kabul University yesterday where reportedly all students attending a law class were killed. The attack is a...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) has written to Ayatollah Khameini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, to raise concerns in respect of the case of the human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose health seriously deteriorated following a prolonged hunger strike. In 2019 she was sentenced to a total of 38 years’...
The Bar Council and the Bar Human Rights Committee have written to the Polish President and Prime Minister, and Marshals of the Senate and Sejm ahead of a scheduled hearing of a motion filed by the National Prosecution Office to the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court to waive the immunity of Judge Igor Tuleya on 5...
Your Excellency, The undersigned organisations have learned of the arrest of approximately 55 lawyers and trainee-lawyers in Ankara. According to the information received, on 11 September 2020, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for approximately 55 lawyers and trainee-lawyers for being “members of a terrorist organization”. Their offices and places of residence were...
The Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) is pleased to join The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) , alongside other organisations, in marking the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Basic Principles on the role of the lawyer. CCBE Statement on the occasion of the 30thanniversary of the UN Basic...
An open letter to: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, UN Member States We, the undersigned organizations, join together to call for an international mechanism to address the Chinese government’s human rights violations, and urge you to take decisive action to achieve this goal. On 26 June 2020, an...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) condemns the designation and imposition of economic sanctions by the United States on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda and Head of the Court’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko. BHRC further condemns the announcement of measures to restrict the issuance of...
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.