Victoria Ortega
President of the Spanish National Bar Association
President of the International Observatory for Lawyers at Risk
The legal profession is crucial to ensuring the rule of law and an adequate functioning of the justice system. An independent and qualified practice of the legal profession is therefore essential to a fair application of the law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The latter was acknowledged by the United Nations in the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted in Havana in 1990 and today, 30 years later, the United Nations still alerts about the erosion of the rule of law worldwide.
While this is happening, we feel that our profession is often viewed with suspicion or is even subject to harassment and threats in many countries because of its unwavering commitment to the defence of human rights. In recent months, we’ve witnessed across the world an increase of abusive and intolerable attacks on the freedom and physical integrity of lawyers, particularly those who are involved in human rights related activities.
In Turkey -a member of the Council of Europe- for example, the level of harassment experienced by lawyers is ignominious to say the least. The mass arbitrary detention of lawyers, according to the figures provided by “Arrested Lawyers” -an organisation founded by exiled lawyers, has resulted in 605 individuals awaiting trial and 441 individuals sentenced to a total of 2,728 years in prison . The lawyer Ebru Timtik went on an indefinite hunger strike while being deprived of liberty to demand a fair trial for herself and the rest of her colleagues. She finally died after 238 days on strike without any response to her demands by the public authorities. Although international pressure has led to the release of Timtik’s fellow lawyer, Aytaç Ünsal, who was also on hunger strike in the same prison, the situation does not seem likely to improve. Also, recent legislative reforms are to target and weaken Bar Councils which carry out investigations on torture and allegations of other infringements of rights with a view to protecting the independence and integrity of the profession.
In Iran, the lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, winner of the Spanish National Bar Award and European Lawyers’ Rights Human Rights Prize in 2010 and 2019 respectively, was unjustly imprisoned sentenced to 148 lashes for defending the right of Iranian women who do not wish to wear a veil in public. She also started a hunger strike and was hospitalised following the deterioration of her health condition. Back in prison, reportedly her life is in serious danger.
In Colombia, illegal wiretapping and threats against human rights lawyers, such as the members of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR), are frequent. This is further demonstrated by the recent admission of their complaint against Colombia before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights based on the said facts and only after all domestic legal remedies have been exhausted without a proper investigation and prosecution by the national courts.
In Venezuela, any activity carried out in defence of a cause that could be interpreted as being opposed to the government is labelled as political dissidence. Thus, practising law puts lawyers at a great risk in front of public authorities, probably more that in any other country in the region, because they are identified with their clients or their clients’ causes.
At the time of writing this article, the harassment suffered by the lawyer Julio Montenegro in Nicaragua and the lack of protection by public authorities poses a real and imminent risk to his life and may force him to flee the country.
In Guatemala, a joint action undertaken by the Guatemalan Bar Association, the Spanish National Bar Association and the International Observatory for Lawyers at Risk, led to the adoption of special measures to protect the lawyer Esteban Celada which allows him to continue working in human rights related cases. It’s worth noting that Guatemala presents one of the highest rates of murdered lawyers on a global scale.
And the list goes on: Egypt, China, Pakistan, Honduras, Belarus and so on. These are just a few examples of the systematic violation of the provisions detailed in the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. Three decades ago, this relevant instrument, although legally non-binding, it helped set international standards that shall be applied in order to create an enabling and safe environment for lawyers.
Today, on the 30th anniversary of this Declaration, we recall the importance of acknowledging its validity, its value and, above all, the need to respect it.
The International Observatory for Lawyers at Risk, founded by the National Councils of Lawyers of France, Italy, Spain and the Paris Bar, includes 34 other Bars committed to the protection of the legal profession worldwide. To this end, common reflection is put at the service of a more effective action to support our colleagues who are limited or impeded to carry out their work. The world will never become a better place while lawyers are still threatened. Putting them out of harm’s way further strengthens the rule of law, and constitutes an obligation of democracies to safeguard one of their most precious assets – effective judicial protection – and to build freer, fairer and more egalitarian societies. In the light of the situation described, it is necessary.
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