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) 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...