Appeal to Bar Associations and Law Societies - Assembly of Worldwide Lawyers - Preliminary Program

The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA - International Association of Lawyers), has the pleasure of inviting your bar association/law society to participate in the Assembly of Worldwide Lawyers in Defence of the Defence to be held on October 30, 2015, from 3 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. at the Palacio de Congresos de Valencia, Spain.

This international assembly follows the Appeal to the World’s Lawyers issued by the UIA, the Paris Bar and the Marrakesh Bar in November 2014 during the 2nd Human Rights Forum in Marrakesh, which encouraged lawyers to get further mobilised in order to defend colleagues facing threats or being prevented from practicing their profession freely and independently.

As you may know, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, states that adequate protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms requires that all persons have effective access to a free and independent legal profession. Professional associations of lawyers have a vital role to play in protecting their members from persecution and improper restrictions and infringements.

We are convinced that promoting the universal nature of human rights and, in particular, rights to defence and an independent justice system is a task that can only be accomplished if all the associations that share these concerns, like your organization, work together in coordination.

Thus, by organising this event, UIA wishes to offer a collaborative space for discussion and debate to all professional lawyers’ associations, human rights organisations, and international institutions, both intergovernmental and/or governmental, which pay special attention to the protection of lawyers in the exercise of their function, especially those working to defend human rights.

Please find below the preliminary program for the event.

Join the Assembly of Worldwide Lawyers in Defence of the Defence in Valencia. Your presence is essential to creating a united and collaborative movement to raise international awareness of issues of concern to the legal profession.

For further information about the Assembly, please contact uiacentre@uianet.org