Since President Kais Saied’s institutional power grab of July 25, 2021, followed by his decree of September 22 of the same year, which implicitly repealed the constitutional order, and the adoption of a tailor-made Constitution a year later, the judicial system has been subjected to constant attacks aimed at crushing its independence and sweeping away the right to a fair trial.
The Beirut Bar Association (BBA) must immediately withdraw its arbitrary restrictions on lawyers’ right to freedom of expression and end any related disciplinary proceedings against them, said the International Commission of Jurists today.
The Lebanese authorities must stop harassing judges who act independently and must revoke the unnecessary and disproportionate limitations they have imposed on their freedoms, the International Commission of Jurists said today.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continue their sustained assault on human rights and freedoms, including targeting human rights activists, enacting repressive laws, and using the criminal justice system as a tool to eliminate the human rights movement. These policies have led to the closure of civic space, severe restrictions on freedom of expression, both online and offline, and the criminalisation of peaceful dissent.
For more than 10 years, UAE authorities have been unjustly detaining at least 60 Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents who were arrested in 2012 because of their demands for reform and democracy or their affiliation with the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah). Some from this group, commonly known as the “UAE 94” because of the number of defendants in their mass trial, were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. They were sentenced to between 7 and 15 years in prison during a trial in 2013 that failed to meet minimum fair trial standards.
The Egyptian authorities must open an independent and impartial investigation into allegations of serious human rights violations perpetrated against detainees at the Badr prison complex and ensure that those responsible be held accountable, said the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today.
Eswatini: In the face of ongoing repression of the legal profession, lawyers raise concerns with UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Lebanon: the criminal justice system must not be used to intimidate and harass journalists
Tanzania: Joint statement condemning violent crackdown, malicious arrest, and treason charges against Tundu Lissu