The Bar Human Rights Committee has written a joint letter to UN Special Rapporteurs and Inter-American Rapporteurs in response to recent threats received by lawyer Reinaldo Villalba Vargas and his legal team. The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, along with The Law Society of England and Wales, Lawyers for Lawyers, Lawyers’ Rights...
(Beirut, August 28, 2020) – On 25 August 2020, the Fifth “Terrorism Circuit” of the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Bahey eldin Hassan, a veteran human rights defender, to 15 years in prison on the basis of his critical tweets, 18 human rights organizations said today. The conviction of Bahey eldin Hassan, director and co-founder of...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) expresses grave concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. BHRC are particularly concerned by a number of reports of the arrest, detention and intimidation of opposition party activists, lawyers and journalists. Further, there appears to be a clear pattern of systematic and targeted...
The Bar Council of England and Wales (“The Bar Council”) and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) condemn the Zimbabwean Magistrate’s ruling on 18 August 2020 against Beatrice Mtetwa, a renowned human rights lawyer. We urgently call upon Magistrate Nduna –the ruling Magistrate in the case– to immediately revoke the judgment...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) has raised concerns regarding the prosecution and judicial harassment of a number of lawyers and human rights defenders in Bahrain in a letter to the King sent today. The letter follows the recent conviction and sentencing of human rights lawyer Abdullah Al-Shamlawi on 30 June...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (“LRWC”) condemn the mass arrests, violence and excessive use of force against peaceful protesters in Belarus following the contested preliminary results of the presidential election on Sunday 9 August 2020. The USA, UK and the EU have refused to accept...
On Friday 14th August senior human rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan was convicted of criminal contempt of court by the Supreme Court of India. In publishing two tweets relating to the Chief Justice of India and the role of the Supreme Court in the last six years, on his Twitter feed, he was found to have...
The undersigned organisations have been following recent developments in the cases of human rights lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, who have been on hunger strike since February 2020. On 5 April 2020, the Turkish Day of the Lawyer, Timtik and Ünsal announced that they would persist in their hunger strike even if it leads...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (“BHRC”) has called on the King of Bahrain to suspend or commute the death sentences of Mohamed Ramadan and Husain Ali Moosa in an open letter sent today. Mr Ramadan and Mr Moosa were convicted of carrying out a 2014 bombing in Bahrain. Both men allege...
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is deeply concerned at the news this morning that the national security law in Hong Kong has been passed unanimously by the National People’s Congress in Beijing, without either meaningful consultation on the law or without its advance publication. The details or text of the...
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.