Twenty prominent legal experts, lawyers and judges from Europe, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. have issued a joint letter urging Chinese President Xi Jinping to release mainland rights lawyers and advocates held in detention. The experts are worried that the Chinese lawyers have been denied legal access since their detention in July. This is in violation of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders as well as the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of all Persons under any Form of Detention or Imprisonment.