Turkey: Joint statement by lawyers, judges, journalists on ongoing crackdown on rule of law in Turkey

April 20, 2017

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the European Association of Judges (EAJ) firmly condemn the ongoing widespread persecution of lawyers, journalists, judges and prosecutors in Turkey.

After the failed coup of 15 July 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and adopted 21 decree-laws, which led to a serious undermining of human rights and the rule of law across the country. Thousands of judges and prosecutors, and hundreds of journalists and lawyers have been dismissed from jobs, detained, or arrested. A widespread censorship on media has been put in place and hundreds of civil society organisations have been shut down. Several lawyers’ associations and the independent judges’ Association YARSAV have been closed down and their assets have been seized or frozen without compensation.

Currently there are around 2000 (out of 4088 dismissed) judges and prosecutors, 350 lawyers and 150 journalists and media workers being detained, with a further 867 lawyers being prosecuted. Most of them are being targeted solely for carrying out their professional activities, on the basis of alleged accusations of supporting terrorist organisations. In many cases, they are detained without charges and without being brought before a judge. When Turkish courts issue detention warrants, they order the freezing of assets, leaving the detained unable to support their families.

The adopted decree-laws undermine the right of the defence. In anti-terror legislation related cases, the detained have no access to a lawyer for the first five days of police custody, and this right can be suspended for up to six months. When access to a lawyer is authorised, lawyer-client confidentiality is violated: clients’ interviews in prisons are recorded and often take place with the presence of a police officer in the room, and documents are confiscated and checked. Furthermore, several non-governmental organisations have expressed their concern about frequent episodes of mistreatment against detainees.1

…

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-04-20/world-news/Joint-statement-by-lawyers-judges-journalists-on-ongoing-crackdown-on-rule-of-law-in-Turkey-6736173269

http://www.omct.org/monitoring-protection-mechanisms/urgent-interventions/european-union/2017/04/d24309/

Turkey: Joint statement by lawyers, judges and journalists on the ongoing crackdown on the rule of law in Turkey

April 5, 2017 Lawyers Day in Turkey

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the European Association of Judges (EAJ) firmly condemn the ongoing widespread persecution of lawyers, journalists, judges and prosecutors in Turkey.

After the failed coup of 15 July 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and adopted 21 decree-laws, which led to a serious undermining of human rights and the rule of law across the country. Thousands of judges and prosecutors, and hundreds of journalists and lawyers have been dismissed from jobs, detained, or arrested. A widespread censorship on media has been put in place and hundreds of civil society organisations have been shut down. Several lawyers’ associations and the independent judges’ Association YARSAV have been closed down and their assets have been seized or frozen without compensation.

Currently there are around 2000 (out of 4088 dismissed) judges and prosecutors, 350 lawyers and 150 journalists and media workers being detained, with a further 867 lawyers being prosecuted. Most of them are being targeted solely for carrying out their professional activities, on the basis of alleged accusations of supporting terrorist organisations. In many cases, they are detained without charges and without being brought before a judge. When Turkish courts issue detention warrants, they order the freezing of assets, leaving the detained unable to support their families.

The adopted decree-laws undermine the right of the defence. In anti-terror legislation related cases, the detained have no access to a lawyer for the first five days of police custody, and this right can be suspended for up to six months. When access to a lawyer is authorised, lawyer-client confidentiality is violated: clients’ interviews in prisons are recorded and often take place with the presence of a police officer in the room, and documents are confiscated and checked. Furthermore, several non-governmental organisations have expressed their concern about frequent episodes of mistreatment against detainees. 1

The undersigned organisations emphasise that an independent judiciary is an essential component in upholding the rule of law in a free society.

…

EN_ Joint Statement Turkey 05 04 2017

FR_ Joint Statement Turkey 05 04 2017 (FRANCAIS)

http://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2017/04/05/joint-statement-by-lawyers-judges-and-journalists-on-the-ongoing-crackdown-on-the-rule-of-law-in-turkey/

http://stockholmcf.org/ccbe-efj-and-eaj-urge-turkey-to-release-all-judges-prosecutors-lawyers-and-journalists/

https://www.turkishminute.com/2017/04/05/law-societies-journalism-organization-condemn-colleagues-persecution-turkey/

http://www.union-syndicale-magistrats.org/web2/fr/etat-droit-turquie_news_1034 (FRANCAIS)

CCBE: Today marked the launch of a new online platform for the protection of human rights defenders and lawyers worldwide

March 30, 2017

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) welcomes the launch of a new online platform “Index of attacks and threats against Human Rights Defenders” by the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism.

This platform is an important new instrument to enhance the protection of threatened lawyers, since it will centralise alerts on attacks on lawyers worldwide.

The CCBE proposed the establishment of this platform last year, based on the platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists launched by the Council of Europe, in 2015.

The new platform was presented today at the workshop “How to improve the protection of threatened lawyers worldwide? Practical tools from the EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism”, jointly organised by the CCBE and the EU Human Rights Defenders Mechanism.

The event gathered around 70 participants among which were Bars and Law Societies, International, European and national lawyers’ organisations, individual lawyers, and human rights NGOs.

…

http://ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Pressreleases/2017/EN_NA_20170330_pr_0317.pdf

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Pressreleases/2017/FR_NA_20170330_pr_0317.pdf (FRANCAIS)

CCBE Event “How to improve the protection of threatened lawyers worldwide? Practical tools from the EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism”

 

March 30, 2017

Defending human rights is not a crime, says Ruthven Gemmel, president of @CCBEinfo More than 1000 lawyers killed, wounded or arrested in ’16

(Patrick Henry‏ @patrhenry)

Mercedes García Pérez head of #HumanRights @eu_eeas delivering keynote address at @CCBEinfo @ProtectHRD_EU workshop #HumanRights defenders

(CCBE‏ @CCBEinfo)

Mercedes Garcia Perez, UE human rights division: nous avons besoin de stratégies de défense des droits de l’homme dans tous les pays de l’UE

(Patrick Henry‏ @patrhenry)

Chair of @CCBEinfo Human Rights Committee @patrhenry highlighting situation of threatened #Lawyers worldwide #HumanRights @ProtectHRD_EU

(CCBE‏ @CCBEinfo)

How to improve the protection of the threatened lawyers worldwide?

(Matthieu Boissavy‏ @mboissavy)

Presentation of @ProtectHRD_EU by Joan Audierne. Highlighting actions taken to protect #HumanRights #Defenders worldwide

(CCBE‏ @CCBEinfo)

Sarah Rinaldi presents the UE support for Human R defenders

(Matthieu Boissavy‏ @mboissavy)

Jairo Céspedes, Comité ejecutivo Abogacía Colombia, interviene en seminario abogados amenazados

(Abogacía Española UE‏ @Abogacia_es_ue)

Anyone acting peacefully to protect human rights is a #HumanRights defender @ProtectHRD_EU 156 defenders died because of their work in 2016

(CCBE‏ @CCBEinfo)

Powerful testimony – @VitalRuyaga addresses @CCBEinfo /@ProtectHRD_EU workshop to denounce the critical situation of lawyers in #Burundi

(ProtectDefenders.eu‏ @ProtectHRD_EU)

Testimony by #Burundi #lawyer speaking about the extremely difficult situation of lawyers who are living in fear

(CCBE‏ @CCBEinfo)

Index of attacks and threats against Human Rights Defenders- an important tool developed by ProtectDefenders.eu

(UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst Facebook)

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) would like to invite you to attend the workshop “How to improve the protection of threatened lawyers worldwide? Practical tools from the EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism”- on 30 March 2017 (2pm-6pm) in Brussels (programme). This event is organised together with the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism.Mercedes García Pérez, Head of Human rights Division at EEAS and Sarah Rinaldi, acting Head of Unit “Human Rights, Gender, Democratic Governance” at DG DEVCO will speak at this event. The main purpose of the workshop is to present the future platform for the protection of human rights defenders/lawyers (to be launched shortly) as well as other practical tools to help endangered lawyers worldwide. Background: in January 2016, the CCBE proposed to the EU mechanism to establish an online platform for the protection of human rights defenders/lawyers, based on the model of the platform launched by the Council of Europe in 2015 for the protection of journalists. The CCBE proposal was accepted and as a result, a new online platform will be launched shortly. This platform marks a progress for the protection of endangered lawyers, as it will centralise information regarding attacks on lawyers worldwide.

http://www.ccbe.eu/actions/events/

CCBE: The Council of Europe appoints a rapporteur for the drafting of a European Convention on the Profession of Lawyer/Le Conseil de l’Europe désigne un rapporteur pour préparer une Convention Européenne pour la profession d’avocat

March 9, 2017

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Pressreleases/2017/EN_NA_20170309_pr_0217.pdf (ENGLISH)

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Pressreleases/2017/FR_NA_20170309_pr_0217.pdf (FRANCAIS)

CCBE: Rapport annuel/Annual Report 2016

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Publications/2016_ANNUAL_REPORT.pdf

CCBE: How to improve the protection of threatened lawyers worldwide? Practical tools from the EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism

On March 30, the CCBE is organising, in
conjunction with ProtectDefenders.eu,
a workshop entitled “How to improve
the protection of threatened lawyers
worldwide? Practical tools from the EU
Human Rights Defenders mechanism”.
The objective of the workshop is to
present the online platform for the
protection of lawyers/human rights
defenders and its added value, and to
share information about the different
types of support which are available
for threatened lawyers (emergency
helpline, financial assistance, training,
temporary relocation…). The target
audience is the CCBE network “Defence
of the Defenders” i.e. the Bars and Law
Societies and International/European
lawyers’ organisations active in the
support of endangered lawyers. Human
Rights NGOs active in the support of
human rights defenders are also invited
to participate.
For more information or to register,
please email event@ccbe.eu.

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Newsletter/CCBEINFO59/EN_newsletter_59.pdf

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/Newsletter/CCBEINFO59/FR_newsletter_59.pdf (FRANCAIS)