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 of England and Wales (“BHRC”) expresses its deep concern at the decision of the President of the United States to issue an Executive Order of 11 June 2020 (“the Order”). That Order declares that any attempt by the ICC to investigate or prosecute United States nationals, and the nationals of...

  The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) has today written to the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to raise grave concerns regarding the expressed intention of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to move towards the unilateral annexation of large areas in the West Bank on or after 1 July 2020. The...

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 8...

Protests in Indianapolis, IN, USA.Photo by Hybrid on Unsplash BHRC expresses condemnation at the excessive use of force deployed by State law enforcement officers in the United States in response to mass protests taking place across the country following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers on 25 May 2020....

  The Bar Human Rights Committee has joined a coalition of ten legal organisations in a joint letter to the President of Turkey expressing concern about criminal investigations launched in Turkey against the Ankara Bar Association and the Diyarbakir Bar Association for “openly disrespect the religious belief of a group” (article 126(3) of the Penal...

The Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) expresses grave concern about the draft national security legislation that is set to be imposed on Hong Kong following the anticipated passage of the draft decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security  (“the...

The international legal community is seriously concerned by the arrest of 15 veteran pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong on Saturday 18 April 2020. In what appears to be a further clampdown on civil liberties and democracy following the 2019 protests, which began over the introduction of a controversial extradition bill, those arrested today include senior...

On 1 April 2020, BHRC and the Bar Council wrote to the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, expressing grave concern regarding the introduction of legislation on Monday 30 March granting sweeping emergency powers to the Hungarian executive as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The State Secretary for Cooperation in European and...