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 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 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.