L4L Award On the shortlist: Iyad Alami
Next Friday, 19 May, the presentation of the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2017 will take place after the seminar ‘The Voice of Rights, about lawyers and freedom of expression’. Next to the presentation of the Award to Thai lawyer Sirikan Charoensiri, special attention will be paid to two other nominees who were selected by the […]
UPR Mid-term report
In preparation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Vietnam in 2019, L4L, together with the Law Society of England and Wales and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, has written a mid-term report. In this report, we set out to which extent Vietnam has implemented the recommendations it accepted during the 2014 UPR process in relation […]
Threats against Robert Sann Aung
Lawyers for Lawyers is concerned about the threats and harassment of lawyer Robert Sann Aung from Myanmar. The threats started after the killing of lawyer U Ko Ni at 29 January 2017. We have reason to believe that the threats and harassment are connected to his legitimate activities as an attorney. Robert Sann Aung is […]
UN Applications for consultative status for 2018
NGOs interested in applying for ECOSOC consultative status should submit their application and required documents before 1 June 2017. The following link provides background information, some of the benefits and the instructions how to apply: http://csonet.org/index.php?page=view&nr=377&type=230&menu=14
19 May: Seminar and Presentation L4L-Award
“Freedom of expression in connection to lawyers, is very timely and topical, as lawyers for free expression and human rights defenders are increasingly being targeted” These are words by Mark Stephens, the acclaimed British lawyer who represented, among others, ‘Facebook girl’ Esraa from Egypt and is on the human rights council of the International Bar […]
Petition update WGAD on Nguyen Van Dai
Together with Media Legal Defence Initiative, PEN International, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and Viet Tan, L4L filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in November 2016, urging it to intervene in the case of lawyer Nguyen Van Dai. In April, observations to the government’s reply were submitted to the WGAD. Nguyen Van Dai is the co-founder of the Vietnam Human Rights Committee […]
Onafhankelijke advocaten in China met uitsterven bedreigd
Gepubliceerd in het Parool op 20 april 2017: Op 12 april 2017 komen twee panda’s op Schiphol aan. In het kader van de pandadiplomatie mogen deze twee panda’s vijftien jaar lang verblijven in het Ouwehands Dierenpark Nederland. Het verblijf goedgekeurd door de Chinese delegatie en de bezoekers staan te trappelen om de panda’s te bewonderen. […]
Court rejects appeal of lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov
At the beginning of March 2017, Tajikistan’s Court of Appeal rejected Buzurgmehr Yorov’s appeal and upheld the previous court verdict of a 23 year prison term. The hearing was closed to the public and EU representatives were not permitted to observe the appeal. More recently, on 16 March 2017, Yorov’s sentence was increased by a […]
Administrative charges against lawyers
On 17 March 2017 the district court of Gomel in Belarus found human rights lawyers Leonid Sudalenko and Anatoly Poplavnyi guilty of non-compliance with the legal requirements on the organisation and conducting of mass events. This was reported by Frontline Defenders on their website. Poplavnyi and Sudalenko were involved in peaceful protests on 19 February […]
Human rights lawyer Sirikan Charoensiri to receive Lawyers for Lawyers Award
Sirikan Charoensiri, a human rights lawyer from Thailand, will receive the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2017. On 19 May 2017 Sirikan Charoensiri will accept the Award at L4L’s seminar ‘The Voice of Rights’, about lawyers and freedom of expression, hosted by Allen & Overy in Amsterdam. An expert jury selected her because of her “unwavering […]
Save the Date! 19 May: L4L-Award seminar
L4L invites you to “The Voice of Rights” About lawyers and Freedom of Expression Seminar + Presentation of the L4L-Award 2017 Introduction: Phon van den Biesen President Lawyers for Lawyers Special guests: Mark Stephens (United Kingdom) Electra Koutra (Greece) Jorge Molano (Colombia) L4L-Award Laureate 2015 Heikelien Verrijn Stuart Chair of the L4L Award Jury Moderator: […]
UPR report Ukraine submitted
In March 2017, Lawyers for Lawyers submitted a report for the Universal Periodic Review of Ukraine, which will be discussed during the session in November. In the report, Lawyers for Lawyers highlighted that the Ukrainian authorities do not always uphold the necessary guarantees for the proper functioning of the legal profession in practice. Lawyers are regularly subjected […]
Joint statement with call to ensure right to a fair trial
In a joint statement, Lawyers for Lawyers, together with other organizations, called on the Chinese authorities to ensure the right of a fair trial in the forthcoming trials of the cases of the ‘709-crackdown’. In July 2015, an unprecedented and seemingly well-coordinated detention campaign of a large number of human rights lawyers and defenders in […]
Sentencing of lawyer Oleg Volchek
Lawyers for Lawyers is concerned about the sentencing of lawyer Oleg Volchek. We shared our concerns in a letter to the authorities of Belarus. Oleg Volchek is a prominent human rights lawyer and director of the non-governmental organisation Pravovaya Pomoshch Naseleniyu (Legal Aid to Population). He defends political rights and fights against the use of torture and bad […]
L4L and FTW observe hearing in KCK-trial in Istanbul
On March 9, 2017 there was another hearing in Istanbul in the long-running case against 46 lawyers accused of being involved in terrorism. The trial started in November 2011. All the lawyers on trial were at some point involved in the defence of the PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. Some of them were held in pre-trial […]
13 years since disappearance of lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit
Thirteen years after Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaijipit went missing, there is still no prospect of justice. Somchai disappeared on 12 March 2004, one day after he had publicly accused the police of torturing his clients, who were in detention in the South of Thailand. Since then, nothing has been heard of him. Shortly […]
