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...

The Bar Human Rights Commitee of England and Wales (BHRC) has today joined over 40 bar associations and human rights organisations in a joint statement raising concerns of the lack of effective investigation into the death of human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi in Turkey in 2015. Tahir Elçi was a prominent figure within the international...

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...