Fact finding missions
L4L sends Fact Finding Missions investigate the situation of lawyers.
Fact finding missions
Lawyers for Lawyers sends Fact Finding Missions to specific countries to investigate the situation of lawyers. Their task is to discover facts in an impartial, objective and comprehensive manner. The missions conduct interviews with lawyers, judges and prosecutors, embassies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. After the mission, a report is produced and disseminated.
Fact Finding Missions are an important tool for gathering relevant information and bringing it to the attention of the public and they are a signal of our concern about a potentially explosive situation.
Philippines
In 2024, Lawyers for Lawyers joined a fact-finding mission to the Philippines: the Caravana Filipina. In its travels, the delegation has observed an alarming pattern of violations of these legal protections to which Philippine legal professionals are entitled. The delegation has documented first-hand accounts of judges and lawyers who have suffered attacks since 2016 to the present day, ranging from harassment, intimidation, surveillance, threats, and red-tagging, to physical assault, arbitrary detention and prosecution, and extrajudicial killings – in other words, assassinations.
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.
Colombia
In 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024 Lawyers for Lawyers participated in the Caravana Internacional de Juristas (the Caravana).
The Caravana is a fact finding mission organized from London in cooperation with local Colombian lawyers. One of the main goals is to increase the visibility of the work of Colombian human rights lawyers. In order to achieve this, the various participants travel to Bogota and other Colombian regions to speak with judges and lawyers and their clients, and with authorities such as the Public Prosecution, the ombudsman, embassies and ministries.
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.
