Fact-finding missions
L4L sends Fact-Finding Missions investigate the situation of lawyers.
Fact-finding missions
Lawyers for Lawyers sends Fact-Finding Missions (FFMs) to specific countries to investigate the situation of lawyers. These missions aim to discover facts in an impartial, objective, and comprehensive manner. Delegations conduct interviews with lawyers, judges, prosecutors, embassies, civil society organizations, and other key stakeholders. After each mission, a report is produced and disseminated.
Fact-Finding Missions are an important tool for gathering relevant information and bringing it to public attention. They also serve as a strong signal of our concern about potentially escalating situations affecting the legal profession.
Philippines
In 2024, Lawyers for Lawyers participated in a fact-finding mission to the Philippines: the Caravana Filipina. During the mission, the delegation observed an alarming pattern of violations of the legal protections to which Philippine legal professionals are entitled.
The delegation documented first-hand accounts from judges and lawyers who have suffered attacks since 2016, including harassment, intimidation, surveillance, threats, red-tagging, physical assault, arbitrary detention and prosecution, and even extrajudicial killings.
This 2024 mission followed earlier fact-finding missions in 2006 and 2008, both organized by Lawyers for Lawyers. The findings and conclusions of these missions were published in two reports, on 24 July 2006 and 4 June 2009, respectively.
Colombia
Between 2010 and 2024, Lawyers for Lawyers participated in the Caravana Internacional de Juristas (the Caravana), a fact-finding mission organized from London in cooperation with local Colombian lawyers.
One of the main objectives of the Caravana is to increase the visibility of the work of Colombian human rights lawyers. To achieve this, participants travel to Bogotá and other regions of Colombia to meet with judges, lawyers, and their clients, as well as with authorities such as the Public Prosecution, the Ombudsman, embassies, and ministries.
Through these missions, Lawyers for Lawyers has helped document the risks and challenges faced by Colombian human rights lawyers, while strengthening international solidarity and advocacy on their behalf.
- Download the 2024 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2018 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2016 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2014 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2013 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2012 Caravana Colombiana Report
- Download the 2010 Caravana Colombiana Report
Guatemala
In October 2025, Lawyers for Lawyers, together with the Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD), coordinated the International Mission of Jurists for Guatemala. The Mission included the participation of the Association of Human Rights Lawyers, Judges, and Prosecutors of Latin America and the Caribbean (AJUFIDH), the Association of Judges for Democracy (JJpD), and the Spanish Association for Human Rights (ADPHE).
The Mission aimed to impartially observe, document, and assess the situation of judicial independence and the legal profession in Guatemala. The press release issued at the conclusion of the Mission highlighted the delegation’s concerns regarding increasing risks faced by lawyers working on cases of high public relevance, as well as the broader challenges to the rule of law in the country.
A comprehensive report with the Mission’s findings and recommendations will be available soon.
The members of the Caravana have made some preliminary findings, classified under four headings: the unprecedented scale of the attacks on legal professionals; the culture of impunity & climate of fear; red-tagging; and the repression of civil society and freedom of speech. Find the full statement here.
The 2024 mission followed to fact-finding missions in 2006 and 2008, which were organized by Lawyers for Lawyers. Lawyers for Lawyers sent a team of eight independent lawyers and judges from Belgium and the Netherlands to the Philippines to look into the killing and harassment of their Filipino colleagues. The findings and conclusions of the missions were published in two reports of 24 July 2006 and 4 June 2009 respectively.
Participation in the mission contributes in various ways to the work of Lawyers for Lawyers. By asking attention internationally to the findings of the mission, Lawyers for Lawyers can call for effective measures to ensure the safety of Colombian lawyers, judges and prosecutors in the performance of their work.
Many threatened lawyers emphasize that international pressure does indeed help, according to lawyer Jorge Molano, winner of the L4L Award 2015, de facto even more than the armored cars, armed bodyguards and bulletproof vests.
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