Global Persecution of Lawyers
Description:
This panel focuses on governmental crackdowns on lawyers and judges across different regions. This type of crackdown can include harassment, disbarment, dismissal from official posts, threats to friends, family, and the lawyers themselves, close supervision and other threats to independence, inability to maintain lawyer-client confidentiality, and in extreme cases, targeted imprisonment or the killing of lawyers for representing their clients and judges for faithfully discharging their duties. The threat to the rule of law becomes substantial as governments move to take away the personal and professional rights of the lawyer and the judge as well as deprive individuals of their right to counsel and ability to assert their legal rights.
Panelists:
Melissa Hooper, Director of Human Rights and Civil Society, Human Rights First
Nate Schenkkan, Project Director for Nations in Transit, Freedom House
Liu Wei, Coordinator & Co-Founder, Public Interest Collaborative for Women Lawyers in China
Javier El-Hage, Chief Legal Officer, Human Rights Foundation
Ochoro Ottuno, Principal & General Counsel, LCN Capital LLC
Moderator:
Jerome A. Cohen, Professor, New York University School of Law
Sponsoring Association Committees:
Persecuted Lawyers Task Force, William A. Wilson III, Chair
African Affairs Committee, Elizabeth Barad and Jason Spears, Co-Chairs
Asian Affairs Committee, Angus Ni, Chair
Inter-American Affairs Committee, David H. Flechner, Chair
Council on International Affairs, Martin S. Flaherty, Chair
International Human Rights Committee, Anil Kalhan, Chair
United Nations Committee, Michael D. Cooper, Chair
Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law, Mark Shulman, Chair
Co-Sponsoring Organizations:
Geneva Bar Association
Observatoire International des Avocats
Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, Fordham Law School
