International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute ANNUAL REVIEW 2017

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has launched its 2017 Annual Review, providing an overview of the IBAHRI’s major activities over the year.

2017 was a difficult year for human rights: since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 70 years ago, it appears that we are now reaching a point where the universal acceptance of human rights is being eroded. Increasingly polarised political spheres and growing support for populist governments are resulting in policies that scapegoat minorities, attack the under-represented and persecute those who oppose these governments.

In this atmosphere, protection of human rights, the rule of law and an independent legal profession are more important than ever. This makes the work of the IBAHRI more important than ever. Since its establishment in 1995, the IBAHRI has endeavoured to defend fundamental human rights through the promotion and protection of the independence of the legal profession, and by providing members of the global legal community with the tools needed to do the same.

 

As part of its ongoing projects in the Americas, the IBAHRI provided torture-prevention training to legal professionals, including judges and public defenders, across Brazil and Mexico. In El Salvador, the IBAHRI brought a high-level delegation of experts on the rights to justice, truth and historical memory to meet with legal professionals, the executive, armed forces, CSOs and academia with a view to achieving justice effectively and realising the rights of those who suffered human rights abuses as a result of the 12-year civil war. Additionally, the IBAHRI continued to monitor the emblematic trial of Venezuelan Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, and sent open letters to President Donald Trump of the United States, which criticised the President and his administration for actions the IBAHRI felt were ‘diametrically opposed to the defence of human rights’.

In Asia Pacific, the IBAHRI worked with the newly established Independent Lawyers’ Association of Myanmar to continue its work in the country, and has been running a trial observation programme to ensure those responsible for the death of prominent lawyer U Ko Ni are brought to justice. In Timor-Leste, the IBAHRI has consolidated its presence in the country by seeking to strengthen the legal profession and supporting the creation of its first national bar association.

The IBAHRI launched a mentorship programme for junior Azerbaijani lawyers that linked them with more experienced senior lawyers, and held a Law Student Conference in Baku, among other activities intended to advocate for the rights of legal professionals in the country. We also facilitated attendance at various OSCE Meetings for lawyers in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan as part of the IBAHRI’s ongoing work in Europe and Central Asia.

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https://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/Human-Rights-Institute-Annual-Review-2017.aspx

https://www.protect-lawyers.com/fr/

In Tajikistan, reforms undertaken by the Qualifications Committee set up by the Ministry of Justice drastically decreased the number of practising lawyers.

Read more about the situation of Tajik lawyers and the work the IBAHRI has done in partnership with the Tajikistan Barristers’ Union here:https://tinyurl.com/y7rhftx4

(International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute Facebook, 9/5/18)

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Tajikistan: How EU Should Tackle Tajikistan Crackdown

October 10, 2017

Last time the European Union and Tajikistan held high-level talks on human rights in summer 2016, Tajik authorities were in the midst of the worst crackdown in the country’s recent history. Six days before talks took place, the country’s supreme court had sentenced the leaders of Tajikistan’s leading opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan to cruelly long prison sentences. The trials were politically motivated, and the defendants tortured. There was no evidence of the activists’ involvement in non-peaceful activities.

This Thursday, the human rights dialogue will once again take place in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe. But this year, things are even worse.

More than 150 political activists, including at least three human rights lawyers – Shuhrat Kudratov, Buzurgmehr Yorov, and Nuriddin Makhkamov – remain unjustly jailed. Kudratov, who’s already served three years, was to have been released last year but authorities kept him behind bars.  And just last week information surfaced that Yorov – who along with Makhkamov is serving 25 years – has been brutally beaten by prison guards recently and thrown into solitary.

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https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/10/how-eu-should-tackle-tajikistan-crackdown

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/12/greece-tajik-activist-faces-extradition

https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-accused-of-weak-statement-after-human-rights-visit-tajikistan/28794296.html

Tajikistan: Lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov arrested two years ago

October 4, 2017

Lawyers for Lawyers has grave concerns about the situation of lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov. Two years ago, on 28 September 2015, Yorov was arrested. Since then he has been imprisoned. Recently, Yorov’s family members have reported that he allegedly is being subjected to regular beatings – accompanied by threats, insults and harassment – by officials at the detention centre. Lawyers for Lawyers called on the Tajik authorities to release Buzurgmehr Yorov immediately.

At the time of his arrest, Yorov had just started to represent thirteen senior leaders of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). These leaders were arrested by the authorities on various charges on 16 September 2015. The IRPT was the only Islamic political party legally registered in Central Asia before the Supreme Court of Tajikistan banned the party and declared it a terrorist organization on 29 September 2015.

On 6 October 2016, the Dushanbe City Court sentenced Yorov to 23 years in prison. The court found Mr. Yorov guilty of, amongst other things, “fraud” and “public calls for undertaking extremist activities”. Yorov pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing, insisting in his closing statement on 3 October 2016 that he was “not an extremist, but a lawyer”.

Since then, a further three cases have been instigated against Yorov on charges of fraud, “disrespecting” the court, insulting government officials and insulting “the leader of the Nation”, and he has been sentenced to an additional five years in prison.

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http://www.advocatenvooradvocaten.nl/12887/tajikistan-concerns-about-lawyer-buzurgmehr-yorov/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzurgmehr_Yorov

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/HUMAN_RIGHTS_LETTERS/Tajikistan_-_Tadjikistan/2017/EN_HRL_20171116_Tajikistan_Concerns-regarding-the-continuing-detention-and-ill-treatment-of-lawyer-Buzurgmehr-Yorov.pdf

Tajikistan: HRF Calls for Release of Detained Lawyers, End of Press Persecution in Tajikistan

August 29, 2017

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the three-year extension of Tajikistani lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov’s 25-year sentence. Yorov was initially arrested for agreeing to act as legal representation for members of the country’s Islamic opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), and sentenced to 23 years of imprisonment. Since then, courts have added five years to his sentence, pushing his cumulative prison time above the legal limit. Yorov’s court cases are part of the continuing persecution of lawyers associated with the IRPT. HRF calls on the Tajikistani regime to release Yorov and four other lawyers who were detained for defending IRPT members, and to cease harassing journalists in connection with the IRPT trials.

“All dictatorships lack judicial independence. However, only the most repressive regimes go so far as to target the lawyers that defend their political opponents. Lawyers like Yorov are simply doing their jobs,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. “Dictator Emomali Rahmon must end the persecution of lawyers and the press in Tajikistan,” added Halvorssen.

Yorov was first arrested on September 28, 2015 on charges of forgery and fraud while representing 13 senior members of the IRPT. He was detained shortly after he issued astatement on the torture of IRPT political leaders in which he specifically referenced one of his clients and called on lawyers, human rights defenders, and activists to protect the prisoners. During his trial in October 2016, he was charged with “calling for the overthrow of the Tajik regime” and “inciting social unrest,” and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

On March 16, 2017, the Supreme Court extended Yorov’s sentence by two additional years in response to an incident in October 2016, when Yorov recited a poem about foolishness during a closed-door trial.

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https://www.hrf.org/single-post/2017/08/29/HRF-Calls-for-Release-of-Detained-Lawyers-End-of-Press-Persecution-in-Tajikistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzurgmehr_Yorov

Tajikistan: In Tajikistan, Lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov Faces Even More Charges

August 4, 2017

A state prosecutor in Tajikistan has reportedly asked the courts to extend the sentence of Buzurgmehr Yorov, a lawyer convicted last year, again — this time by 17 years for additional fraud and insulting the leader of the nation.

According to Asia-Plus, because of a legal restriction on how long a defendant can be sentenced — 30 years — if the new case results in a conviction, Yorov would get at most 5 more years.

Yorov was arrested in September 2015. Tajik authorities accused Yorov and another lawyer, Nuriddin Mahkamov, of fraud and forgery, and then heaped on additional crimes: inciting ethnic enmity, calling for the otherthrow of the government, support of extremist activity.

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The state’’s critics pointed out that the lawyers’ real crime was agreeing to represent the leadership of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), who had been arrested in a broad sweep in September 2015. The IRPT leadership were sentenced to long prison terms — two to life — and so were their lawyers. In October 2016, Yorov was handed a 23-year sentence.

A few months later, prosecutors asked to extend his term because of his reading of an 11th century poem in court during his first trial. He was charged with contempt of court and insulting a government official. Farangis Najibullah, of RFE/RL, explained the incident:

As he sat in the dock during a court hearing in October, Yorov read out a stanza from a classic poem by the Persian poet Omar Khayyam.

The passage goes something like this:

With these ignorant few who foolishly

Consider themselves the intelligent ones of the world

Should be donkeys, because they are so deep in donkeyness

That they call “blasphemous” whomever is not a donkey

Eyewitnesses who were present in the Dushanbe courtroom say the reading led to a heated exchange between the defendant and the prosecutor.

Yorov was convicted and two more years added to his sentence.

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http://thediplomat.com/2017/08/in-tajikistan-lawyer-buzurgmehr-yorov-faces-even-more-charges/

Tajikistan: The Law Society of Upper Canada expresses grave concern about the travel ban against lawyer Fayzinisso Vohidova in Tajikistan

July 5, 2017

The Law Society of Upper Canada expresses grave concern about the travel ban against lawyer Fayzinisso Vohidova in Tajikistan.

Fayzinisso Vohidova is a Khujand-based lawyer known for her human rights and criminal defence work in politically sensitive cases. As a result of her professional activities, she has long been the target of government harassment. Since July 2015, she has endured surveillance and intimidation. In early 2016, she received credible information that law enforcement officials had initiated a criminal investigation against her.

More recently, on May 14, 2017, border guards with the State Committee on State Security prevented Fayzinisso Vohidova from traveling to Kyrgyzstan. They detained her for eight hours, stating that there was a “defect” in her passport and that she “had no right to leave Tajikistan”. Eventually, the border guards conceded that Fayzinisso Vohidova had been placed on a list of individuals banned from leaving the country. Arbitrary bans on travel violate article 12(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees every individual the right to leave any country, including his or her own. Tajikistan became a party to the ICCPR in 1999.

Reports further indicate that in the weeks that preceded the above-mentioned incident, Fayzinisso Vohidova had been interrogated multiple times by Tajik security services. Human rights organizations believe that these latest acts of harassment against Fayzinisso Vohidova are related to the critical remarks she made about the imprisonment of two Tajik human rights lawyers, Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nuriddin Makhkamov. In April 2017, she had publicly appealed to President Emomali Rahmon through social media, criticizing the government’s imprisonment of Yorov and Makhkamov, both of whom were convicted and sentenced in October 2016 following a prosecution and trial that appeared to be politically motivated. The Law Society intervened on behalf of Buzurgmehr Yorov in February 2016 and January 2017, and on behalf of Nuriddin Makhkamov in January 2017.

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http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147504001

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147503997

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147503996&langtype=1033

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/18/tajikistan-stop-persecuting-opposition-families

http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/HUMAN_RIGHTS_LETTERS/Tajikistan_-_Tadjikistan/2017/EN_HRL_20170809_Tajikistan_Concerns-regarding-the-travel-ban-against-lawyer-Fayzinisso-Vohidova.pdf

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147504001&langtype=1036 (FRANCAIS)

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147503997&langtype=1036 (FRANCAIS)

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147503996&langtype=1036 (FRANCAIS)

Tajikistan: Authorities File Charges Against Jailed Lawyer’s Relatives

May 31, 2017

Authorities in Tajikistan have piled the pressure on jailed lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov by filing criminal charges against his sister and brother.

Yorov’s sister, Hosiyat, told EurasiaNet.org that she and another brother, Jamshed, learned on May 29 that they face accusations of inciting the violent overthrow of the government. Jamshed Yorov and a former lawyer for the family, Muzamma Kodirova, have been hit with separate charges of incitement to ethnic and religious hatred. All three are currently outside Tajikistan.

Buzurgmehr Yorov was arrested in September 2015 on charges of fraud and forging documents only days after he agreed to represent leading members of the now-banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, who were accused of attempting to topple the government. Rights groups called the case “politically motivated.” In total, Yorov has been sentenced to serve 25 years in jail.

The Yorov siblings are under pressure to return to their homes country from Germany, where they are currently pursuing efforts to lodge their brother’s case in international rights tribunals.

“Jamshed’s wife is being kept in Tajikistan as a hostage. They will not let her leave the country. They have threatened her by saying that if she leaves, they will file charges against other members of her family,” Hosiyat Yorova told EurasiaNet.org.

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http://www.eurasianet.org/node/83771

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6495-tajikistan-human-rights-watchdogs-condemn-crackdown-on-lawyers