Human Rights - what we do

Upholding the Rule of Law and Access to Justice: We design and implement projects that aim to support developing legal systems and professions abroad.

Promotion of human rights worldwide: We raise awareness of human rights international standards and conventions and lobby for better adherence to international law in practice. We respond to individual breaches of human rights suffered by lawyers in the course of their work.

For more details of the Law Society's international project and human rights work, please click on the links below.

Examples of International Projects:

Nigeria Law Project
Antigua Project
Uganda - Legal Aid Project
Turkey Partnership
China Training Scheme
Middle East Training Programmes
Russia Partnership
Libya Legislative Review Project

Examples of Human Rights Interventions:

Russian authorities
Pakistan authorities
Chinese authorities
Honduran authorities
Iraqi authorities
Yemeni authorities
North Carolina authorities
Texan authorities
Zimbabwean authorities

International Projects:

 
Nigeria:

• Following long standing concerns about the disregard for international human rights standards the project addressed the need for free legal representation to defendents in the absence of a state-funded legal aid system.  The Duty Solicitor Scheme was developed which today sees nearly 500 lawyers providing 20,000 pro bono lawyer-days-in court per year in 15 states.  700 lawyers are being trained in international human rights and we are working with three targeted state governments to fully institutionalise the scheme by the end of the programme in 2009.  Back to top.

Antigua:

• This project aimed to improve access to justice in Antigua & Barbuda by strengthening the institutional capacity of the Legal Aid and Advice Centre to undertake and deliver its services to meet the needs of the poor with no access to representation. The objectives of the project were to: build the strategic planning skills to ensure long term sustainability of the centre; provision of information to the public on basic legal rights and access to justice; to improve client care and case management abilities of staff at the centres: to build local capacity by training trainers to train members of the pool of private lawyers volunteering to assist in cases.

Uganda:

• The Law Society worked in partnership with the Legal Aid Project (LAP) of the Uganda Law Society to strengthen the capacity of LAP to offer wider and more effective free legal services to their clients. This involved: advocacy and mediation skills training to legal aid providers; increased awareness of International Human Rights instruments and their domestic application through a training of trainers programme to enhance the dissemination and sharing of information and to improve the capacity of the Legal Aid Project to address its clients’ needs effectively and appropriately.

Turkey:

• A partnership between the Union of Turkish Bar Association and the Law Society of England and Wales to: Raise awareness of the European Union and the accession process in Turkey among the legal profession; To increase the professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness of legal services across Turkey to EU standards; To promote cross-border co-operation between the Turkish Bar Association and counterparts across the EU Member States: To enhance the capacity of bar associations at national and local level to facilitate access to objective information on EU and accession related issues to their members.

China:

• The Lord Chancellor’s Training Scheme for Young Chinese Lawyers is a successor scheme to the highly successful Practical Training Scheme for Young Chinese Lawyers. It aims to: Give Chinese lawyers an understanding of English law and the English legal system; to provide an introduction to the practice of English law in contentious and non - contentious work and to provide Chinese lawyers with an insight into the management and organisation of legal practice in both solicitors' firms and barristers' chambers.

Middle East:

• The Law Society of England and Wales ran a series of international training programmes for Arab lawyers in eight countries, namely: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia. This included training on: International law including international trade agreements and trade law; International legal practice; transactions and skills; International standards for judges, lawyers and prosecutors: International human rights and English legal terminology.

Russia: 

• A legal co-operation partnership between the Law Society of England and Wales and the Russian Federal Chamber of Lawyers to contribute to the effective and efficient provision of legal services in Russia by the institutional development of the bodies that representative and regulatory bodies of the legal profession. Activities included: A study-visit to the UK to explore models of regulation and representation; A conference in Moscow to present results and examine best practice for the legal profession in Russia; The production of a toolkit on legal practice; The establishment of a twinning programme between regional chambers in Russia and local law societies in England and Wales.

Libya:

• In recognition of the importance of legal reform to its economic reform agenda The Law Society of England and Wales was invited to lead a steering committee to review legislation and procedures on banking, commercial and dispute resolution and recommended policy options to ensure that legislation provided a more enabling business and investment environment.

Human Rights Interventions:

Russia:

• In March 2007 the Law Society wrote to Russian authorities expressing grave concern that due process had not been observed by the Prosecutor General's Office in its criminal proceedings against English solicitor and Law Society member Timothy Osborne. Mr. Osborne was investigated for embezzlement and money laundering under the Russian Criminal Code.  However he was given no formal notice of the accusations against him - instead the investigation was announced on the Prosecutor General's website.  The delay in either bringing charges or dropping the public allegations against him prevented him from effectively carrying out his practice as a lawyer.  His freedom to travel abroad was also curtailed by the possibility of extradition to Russia from a third country.

Pakistan:

• The Law Society wrote on several occasions in 2005 and 2006 to General Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on behalf of British citizen, Mirza Tahir Hussain.  Mr Hussain had been held on death row in Pakistan for 18 years for murdering a taxi driver in 1988.  He had initially been cleared by the Lahore High Court in 1996.  However, an Islamic Sharia court re-heard the case on the grounds that it had jurisdiction over a crime of robbery with murder.  This was despite the previous finding by the High Court that there was no robbery.  The Sharia court imposed the death penalty.  On 16 November 2006, General Musharraf commuted Mr Hussain's sentence.  Mr Hussain was released a few days later and is now back in Britain.
• In May 2007 the Law Society wrote to General Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, to express concern over the suspension of Chief Justice Chaudhry and the ensuing civil unrest. The Law Society urged the President to ensure that proceedings against the Chief Justice, who had been accused of misusing his office for personal gain, were conducted in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with Pakistan’s obligations under Article 14 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and under the Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles on the Accountability of and the Relationship between the Three Branches of Government. The intervention also referred to international standards expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Basic Principle on the Independence of the Judiciary. In July 2007 the Law Society welcomed the decision of Pakistan’s Supreme Court that the Chief Justice should be reinstated, a judgment that followed intense international pressure on the issue.
• The Law Society has been highly active in relation to the constitutional crisis and the plight of lawyers and judges in Pakistan in recent months. For more information on the Law Society's recent Pakistan activities, please follow this link http://international.lawsociety.org.uk/node/2300

China:

• In July 2007 the Law Society wrote to Chinese Authorities to express its concern about lawyer Chen Guangcheng. Chen Guangcheng is currently serving a four year prison sentence in Linyi City Prison in the Shandong Province for “wilfully harming public property” and “inciting disruption of transport”. However the real reason for his detention is understood to have been his legitimate work assisting villagers in taking action against Linyi City Authorities for carrying out forced sterilisations and abortions. Blind since birth, Mr. Chen requires the assistance of his wife or lawyer in order to draft an appeal to the Provincial Higher Court. However his visitation rights are restricted to thirty minutes per month, rendering it impossible to effectively appeal his sentence. He is also reported to have been severely beaten in detention and denied medical treatment.

Honduras: 

• In August 2007 the Law Society wrote to Honduran authorities to add its voice to international pressure for an investigation into the murder of labour rights lawyer Dionisio Díaz García. Mr. Diaz Garcia was shot dead on his way to court after receiving death threats related to his representation of security guards in cases against their economically and politically mighty employers. The Honduran government failed to respond appropriately to requests for his protection before the murder last December, for an investigation into this murder, and for protection of his surviving colleagues. Members of the international department met Honduran delegates at Amnesty International UK to discuss this case as well as the pressures on the human rights in Honduras more generally, and to explore ways in which the legal community here might be able to lend support to the Honduran cause.

Iraq:

• In January 2006 the Law Society wrote to the Iraqi Minister of Justice, Mr. Abdel Hussein Shandal expressing concern over his issuing, in December 2005, of a decree that dissolved the Council of the Iraqi Bar Association in order to pave the way for a government appointed committee of three lawyers and two judges to run the Bar Association. The letter of intervention referred to the entitlement of lawyers to form and join self-governing professional associations free from external interference, provided for by the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

Yemen:

• In March 2006 The Law Society wrote to Yemeni authorities urging for the death sentence of Adil Muhammed Saif al-Ma’amari to be commuted, after a court appointed doctor confirmed that he was under eighteen at the time of the murder of which he was convicted. He received no legal representation at his trial and it was alleged that his confession to the murder was extracted under torture. The execution of offenders who were juveniles at the time of the crime is contrary to international legal norms. No country openly admits to the practice.

North Carolina:

• In April 2006 the Law Society wrote to Governor Michael F. Easley of North Carolina requesting the reversal of a death sentence of Willie Brown, scheduled to be executed for a fatal shooting in 1983. Serious concerns were raised about the quality of Mr. Brown’s legal representation at his first trial after his attorneys made no attempt to raise the issue of his well documented history of mental illness. Also, the Supreme Court had ruled since his sentencing that jury instructions of the nature given at his trial were unconstitutional.

Texas:

• In May 2006 the Law Society wrote to Texas Governor Rick Perry urging for the reversal of the death sentence of Angel Maturino Reséndiz, a paranoid schizophrenic who believed that as a “man-angel” he was immune from lethal injection. It was later found that his appeal lawyer, who had made no mention of his mental illness, had recycled a petition used for a previous death row inmate, word for word.

Zimbabwe:

• Andrew Holroyd, Law Society President called upon Prime Minister Gordon Brown in an open letter, (see http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/documents/downloads/dynamic/lettertopmzimba...) to ensure that the British government and its EU partners keep international human rights norms and standards at the top of the EU-African Union summit (12/13 December 2007). In his letter Mr Holroyd mentioned some of the ways in which the government of Zimbabwe has systematically undermined the rule of law in and calls upon EU leaders to ensure that this is the story that emerges from the Lisbon summit.