As the 44th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council begins, coinciding with the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (‘UN Basic Principles’), the International Bar Association (IBA) urges Member States to support the UN Basic Principles and the role of the legal profession in upholding the rule of law, and promoting and protecting human rights.
A joint call for action – signed by 50 bar associations, law societies, and national and international lawyers’ organisations from across the world – has been issued by the IBA together with the International Association of Lawyers and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Lawyers for Lawyers has co-signed the call for action.
In the call for action, the signatories note with great concern the increasing frequency, globally, of attacks and interferences both on the independence of the legal profession, and against lawyers individually, including threats, intimidation, retaliation, harassment and interference in the discharge of lawyers’ professional functions. Lawyers are exposed to arbitrary sanctions, including arrest, prosecution or deprivation of licence to practice law, and/or to situations in which governments fail to safeguard lawyers adequately where their security is threatened as a result of engaging in their profession. In light of this, the signatories reaffirm the relevance and the universality of the UN Basic Principles.
