The International Day of the Endangered Lawyer is the day on which we highlight the plight of the lawyers all over the world who are being harassed, silenced, pressured, threatened, persecuted, tortured. Even murders and disappearances have been perpetrated. The only reason for these outrages is the fact that these lawyers are doing their job, and their professional obligations, when needed the most.
The 24th of January was chosen to be the annual International Day of the Endangered Lawyer because on 24 January 1977 three extreme-right terrorists stormed into the offices of labour lawyers working for the trade union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) in the Calle Atocha in Madrid. They opened fire murdering three of the lawyers, Enrique Valdelvira Ibáñez, Luis Javier Benavides Orgaz and Francisco Javier Sauquillo. They also killed a law student and an administrator. The Atocha Massacre was a turning-point in Spain’s transition to democracy.
In 2010, the very first Day of the Endangered Lawyer (DotEL) was organized by the Foundation “The Day of the Endangered Lawyer”, founded by the Dutch lawyers Symone Gaasbeek-Wielinga and Hans Gaasbeek following their visit to The Philippines in 1990.
It is now organised by the Coalition for the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer. 35 lawyers organisation from around the world are members of the Coalition, including the Law Society of England and Wales, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), Institut des Droits de l’Homme des Avocats Européens (IDHAE), International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Federation of European Bars, Institute for the Rule of Law of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA-IROL), and the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), of which BHRC Executive Committee member Bill Bowring is Honorary President.
The DotEL aims on the one hand, to create awareness that the practice of the legal profession in many countries involves significant risks, including that of being murdered, but it aims as well at denouncing the situation in a particular country where lawyers are victims of serious violations of their fundamental rights because of the exercise of their profession.
Every year on 24 January lawyers’ organisations dedicate this day to the endangered lawyers in a particular country: 2010 Iran, 2012 Turkey, 2013 Basque Country/Spain, 2014 Colombia, 2015 Philippines, 2016 Honduras, 2017 China, 2018 Egypt, 2019 Turkey, 2020 Pakistan, 2021 Azerbaijan, 2022 Colombia, 2023 Afghanistan, 2024 Iran, 2025 Belarus.
In 2025, the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer spotlights the persecution of lawyers in Belarus. They face pervasive systematic harassment and interference with their professional activities. Following the Presidential election and mass protests in 2020, a crackdown by the government has resulted in the targeting of lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents. There is a persistent and disturbing trend in Belarus where legal practitioners face escalating criminal sanctions, arbitrary detention, and systemic interference in their professional duties.
Bill Bowring, 22 January 2025
