BHRC: The “Gezi Park” trial continues on 8 October 2019 with the ongoing detention of Osman Kavala in Turkey

BHRC: The “Gezi Park” trial continues on 8 October 2019 with the ongoing detention of Osman Kavala in Turkey BHRC has issued a public statement renewing its condemnation of the use of terror charges and prolonged detention as reprisals over the “Gezi Park” trial of sixteen leading civil society individuals, including Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, following the...

Joint call by international legal community: Protect Filipino lawyers!

Joint call by international legal community: Protect Filipino lawyers! Today, Bar Human Rights Committee together with 151 international and domestic bar associations, other lawyers’ organizations and legal professionals from 49 countries around the world called on the Government of the Philippines to take all necessary measures to stop the attacks against and extrajudicial killings of lawyers and to...

BHRC trial report on latest stage of Selahattin Demirtaş v Turkey confirms ECtHR finding that continued detention is politically motivated

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales has published its interim report in the ongoing cases of Selahattin Demirtaş v Turkey and Veysel Ok v Turkey.  Mr Demirtaş is the well-known former member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Parliament) and Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey’s third largest political...

BHRC publishes event report on Parliamentary session “Hiding in Plain Sight-the extraordinary scale of human rights violations in Xinjiang, China”

On Wednesday 26th June 2019, the Bar Human Rights Committee in conjunction with the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group, held an important panel discussion in Parliament to consider the treatment of Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China and to explore how to hold China to account for human rights violations there. It...

BHRC joins International Coalition of Legal Organisations raising concern for Turkey’s lawyers and judges

BHRC is part of an international coalition of legal organisations who have submitted a joint Stakeholder Submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review for Turkey. Alongside BHRC, the coalition includes the Law Society of England & Wales; International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute; Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales; Conseil...

BHRC has issued a public statement raising serious concern over the “Gezi Park” trial of sixteen leading civil society individuals, including Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, which resumes tomorrow in Istanbul. BHRC Chair, Schona Jolly QC, observed the opening of the trial in June 2019 and will continue to monitor the trial this week through our...

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) writes to express its alarm and concern at the raids conducted by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation early this morning at the homes and offices of Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover in New Delhi and Mumbai. We understand this follows the filing...

Hong Kong’s “ill conceived” extradition proposals “fundamentally imperil the operation of the rule of law” say leading international law organisations.

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, the Law Society of England & Wales, the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, the Defence Extradition Lawyer’s Forum, the International Forum of Extradition Specialists,  and  Fair Trials  have co-authored observations on the human...