Joint letter for Le Cong Dinh
On 16 November 2012, L4L, together with Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LWRC) and The Law Society of England and Wales (The Society), sent a letter to the Vietnamese authorities and to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. In this letter the organizations asked for attention for the situation of Le […]
Fourth week of hunger strike of Nasrin Sotoudeh
On 17 October 2012, Iranian human rights defender and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike to protest against the harassment by judicial authorities towards her family. Recently, Sotoudeh’s 12-year-old daughter was summoned by authorities and informed that she was banned from traveling outside the country. Furthermore, visits to Sotoudeh by her mother and brother have […]
Joint letter for Mario Joseph, Newton St-Juste and André Michel
On 26 October 2012, L4L, together with Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LWRC), sent a letter to the Haitian authorities urging them to immediately, independently and thoroughly investigate the threats and acts of intimidation towards Mario Joseph, Newton St-Juste and André Michel, to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and to provide effective protection to these lawyers. Mario […]
Nasrin Sotoudeh awarded Sakhorov price
This year’s Sakhorov Price was awarded to two Iranian activists, including human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. Nasrin Sotoudeh defended many of the human rights activists who were arrested after the presidential elections in June 2009. She also defended Shirin Ebadi, the human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate who co-founded the Defenders for Human Rights Center. She also acted […]
Statement Nasrin Sotoudeh read out during MEA ceremony
On 2 October 2012 the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) was presented in Geneva. The goal of the MEA is to extend recognition and protective publicity to those who are currently involved in front line work for the promotion and protection of human rights. This year, Nasrin Sotoudeh was one of the […]
Lawyer David Teleki asks for help in establishing Colombian Bar Association
Colombian lawyer David Teleki visited the Netherlands on 10, 11 and 12 October 2012. Teleki works in Colombia as a criminal lawyer. Among others he stood by Jesse Quintero, one of the defendants in the Colmenares-process. Teleki received many threats via telephone and social media from the moment he started working on this case. IN order […]
Monitoring trial session Filiz Kalayci
On 11 October 2012 another hearing took place in Ankara in the trial against Filiz Kalayci. L4L was present to monitor the hearing. Filiz Kalayci worked mostly on human rights issues. Throughout the 13 years she worked as a lawyer in Turkey, Kalayci has been tried, threatened and imprisoned. On May 12, 2009 Filiz Kalayci was, together with […]
NGO meeting with UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
On 2 October 2012, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, visited the Netherlands. She attended the opening of the new Human Rights Institute, and afterwards she discussed the current status of human rights in the Netherlands with several Dutch NGOs. Present at this conversation was also Adrie van de Streek, L4L’s executive […]
Abdolfattah Soltani awarded with IBA Human Rights Award
On the annual conference of the International Bar Association (IBA), the IBA Human Rights Award 2012 was awarded to Abdolfattah Soltani. Soltani is the co-founder of the Defender of Human Rights Centre(DHRC) and acted on behalf of, among others, journalist Akbar Ganji (Ganji exposed the involvement of government officials in the murders of intellectuals and […]
Antonio Trejo Cabrera killed
During the night of 22 September 2012 Antonio Trejo Cabrera was murdered. He was attending a wedding that day. When he went outside to answer a phone call, six shots were fired at him. Antonio Trejo was a lawyer who regularly represented poor farmers in the region of Bajo Aguán, who have been expropriated by […]
Caravana 2012: L4L visit threatened lawyers
Like in 2010, Lawyers for Lawyers participated also this year in the Caravana Internacional de Juristas (Caravana). From the 26th of August 2012 until the 1st of September 2012, Jos Boertjens and Alice Krispijn visited Colombia together with a group consisting of 40 lawyers and judges. The Caravana is organized from London in cooperation with local Colombian […]
Criminal charges against human rights lawyer Anna Aladova
Anna Aladova, human rights lawyer from Moldova, was notified on 15 August 2012 that her case has been received by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, which must now determine which is the competent judicial authority to consider the criminal charges against her. Aladova works for the Regional Bureau of the […]
Joint statement on behalf of Le Quoc Quan
On 30 August 2012, L4L issued a joint statement with Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LWRC) and Amnesty International Netherlands (Amnesty) on behalf of Le Quoc Quan. Mr. Le Quoc Quan is a prominent lawyer and human rights defender. Although he can no longer formally exercise his work as a lawyer following his disbarment, he continues […]
Monitoring the ‘Lawyers trial’ in Istanbul
In Turkey on 16 July, the trial against 46 lawyers, three employees of law firms and a journalist who are suspected of having ties with the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) started. The Turkish authorities regard the KCK as the local branch of the banned Kurdish labour party PKK. The majority of the suspected […]
Houtan Kian still in prison under harsh conditions
The former lawyer of Javid Houtan Kian has reported to have received a letter from Houtan Kian, in which he again elaborated upon the very heavy circumstances under which is detained in the prison of Tabriz, Iran. In his letter, which was reportedly smuggled out of prison in June, he describes how he has suffered […]
Joint letter for Turkish lawyers
In a joint letter to Gabriela Knaul, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, L4L, together with 15 other human rights organizations, urged Ms. Knaul to undertake action in the framework of her mandate for the 46 lawyers that will stand trial this week. On November 22, 2011, a broad campaign of […]