Legal Professionals and the UPR: Joint statement
Today, Lawyers for Lawyers, together with 6 other organizations, delivered an oral statement at the UN Human Rights Council. The organizations called upon the Council, as well as States, to ensure that the role of judges, lawyers and prosecutors receives heightened attention in the future Universal Periodic Review cycles.
A recent report of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) released earlier this week finds that UPR recommendations still insufficiently address the role of judges, lawyers and prosecutors, or the threats they face, as extensively documented by the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. Significantly, these recommendations often make no reference to relevant UN standards.
The independence of lawyers was considered in fewer than 100 of the 38,000 UPR recommendations. Guarantees for legal professionals’ rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association are barely addressed. This fails to reflect the key role that self-governing organisations of legal professionals should play in upholding human rights and the rule of law, the independence of the legal profession and law reform processes.
Click here to view the full statement.