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The Day of the Endangered Lawyer, marked on 24 January of each year, is a time to reflect on the personal and professional safety of lawyers around the world, who face mounting persecution, prosecution, arbitrary detention, threats, torture, assaults and death in reprisal for their work to protect rights and secure justice. Each year, the Day of the Endangered Lawyer focuses on the plight of lawyers in a particular country. The focus in 2018 was on Egypt. A total of thirty-three cities participated in the events this year, including Paris, Mumbai, Milan and Taipei.
LRWC co-hosted three events across Canada to discuss the issues to honour our legal colleagues in Egypt and to call on authorities to respect and protect advocacy rights and ensure freedom from “intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference”, their personal and professional safety and remedies for violations. The first event was a panel discussion in Halifax in partnership with the CBA-NS Constitutional & Human Rights Law Section and the Dalhousie University International Law Society. A panel discussion was held at the University of Victoria’sfaculty of law, organized by LRWC, in partnership with student club LEVEL. Justice. Ragia Omran (by video from Cairo), prominent lawyer and human rights activist in Egypt, 2017 recipient of the prestigious Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, spoke about the repressive regime in Egypt, the challenges and obstacles she continues to face from the Egyptian authorities. She implored LRWC members, as her legal colleagues, to please keep the people of Egypt, especially the human rights advocates and lawyers, on our radar and in our thoughts. Dr. Martin Bunton, Professor at the University of Victoria History Faculty, spoke about the history of the 2011 Arab Uprisings with a focus on Egypt, highlighting how this has affected human rights. M.T., law graduate from Turkey and Convention refugee to Canada, spoke about his experience as a law graduate in Turkey, and about the arrests and detention of lawyers and judges in Turkey following the 2016 attempted military coup. Renée Mulligan, LRWC Director and Megan Presnail, LWRC Myanmar Monitor, moderated the panel.
In Toronto the Day of the Endangered Lawyer was marked on 31 January with a sold-out event at the Law Society of Ontario sponsored by LRWC, the Law Society of Ontario and Human Rights Watch. Farida Deif of HRW interviewed Mr. Adel, an Egyptian human rights lawyer now living in Canada who was able to share both professional and personal perspectives on the decline of the rule of law and the persecution of lawyers for political purposes under the guise of state security and anti-terrorism. Their discussion was followed by a reception where Gavin Magrath and Cindy Song represented LRWC, discussing work on behalf of human rights defenders and Ms. Song’s personal experiences as a Chinese-trained lawyer. More information on the Day of the Endangered Lawyer can be found here.
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https://www.lrwc.org/lrwc-newsletter-december-2017-january-2017-edition/
