PROVIDING PROTECTIVE PUBLICITY AND SUPPORT TO UNJUSTLY JAILED LAWYERS

#FreetheLawyers

#FreeTheLawyers campaign from Lawyers for Lawyers on Vimeo.

Around the world, lawyers are harassed, threatened or attacked for simply doing their job. It depends on the political reality and the factual circumstances what instruments are used to silence lawyers or prevent them from representing certain clients. Lawyers increasingly face arbitrary arrest and prosecution. There is an alarming trend of lawyers who are sentenced to long prison sentences because of their work. In these cases, fundamental rights such as access to justice and protection from torture and other ill-treatment in detention are not guaranteed. Therefore, these lawyers need our support.

In order to provide protective publicity and support to lawyers who are serving long prison sentences, Lawyers for Lawyers has launched the worldwide two-year long #FreeTheLawyers Campaign on 10 December 2019. The campaign consisted of a series of activities, including interventions, social media campaigns, individual petitions and submissions as well as advocacy on targeted cases from different parts of the world.

The #FreeTheLawyers campaign is designed to bring awareness, build support, and inspire action on behalf of lawyers imprisoned for their work. Learn their stories, send them messages of hope, and join the campaign to stand in solidarity and advocate for their immediate release.

 

Join us and take action!

1. Send a greetings cards to a lawyer in prison!

You’ve probably got a card, and possibly quite a few more, that you’re keeping in a box somewhere. Sent by a friend, a family member or a lover, carrying a touching or funny message. You didn’t recycle the card or just tore the stamp off, because it meant a lot and made a difference at that very time.

It is with this sentiment that at this time of the year Lawyers for Lawyers organizes a greeting cards campaign. Receiving a greeting card can mean all the difference to a lawyer in prison. Messages of solidarity strengthen and cheer up those suffering human rights abuses because of their work. And if you are wondering if the lawyers actually receive the cards? Many of them do! We received many messages from lawyers expressing their thanks for the cards they received from their international colleagues.

So join us, and send a card to a lawyer in prison! Please send your cards to the post office box below and mention the name of the lawyer you would like to address your card to in the card. Do not send any religious card or political statements. The team of Lawyers for Lawyers will make sure that your cards will be forwarded to the lawyer to whom you have addressed your card!

Lawyers for Lawyers
Greeting cards
Postbus 7113
1007 JC Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Click here to see the lawyers you can write a card to!

2. Send a letter to call for the release of Chow Hang Tung!

Letters send a clear signal to the authorities that their actions are being watched. Join us and send a letter to the authorities in Hong Kong to ask for the immediate and unconditional release of Chow Hang Tung.

Chow Hang Tung is a human rights lawyer from Hong Kong who defends people whose human rights were violated. She is imprisoned for organizing or participating in illegal assemblies in relation to her involvement in organizing the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Her arrest is a clear reprisal for her human rights work, it took place only five hours before the bail application hearing of her client, a political activist. Ms. Hang Tung is currently serving a 22 month prison sentence. She represents herself in her cases but faces many difficulties while preparing for her case in prison.

We have created a template letter that you can use. The letter can be found here. Please sign the letter, print it and copy and paste the complete address from the template letter on the envelope. You can sign the letter with your own name, a fictitious name or solely a signature.

3. Post on social media

Lawyers for Lawyers has been actively raising awareness about the jailed lawyers that are featured in our campaign via our social media channels by using the #FreeTheLawyers hashtag. Would you like show support for unjustly jailed lawyers? The texts that are posted below can be copy and pasted to your social media accounts.

  • Take action for unjustly jailed lawyers by writing a greetings card: https://bit.ly/3pBIq7i #FreeTheLawyers
  • Dear (name of lawyer), you are not alone in your struggle. We will keep raising our voice for you. #FreeTheLawyers