Announcement /International Fair Trial Day 2024: the Philippines

Via Tsuji (2010) / Flickr

The Steering Groupe of the International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) in which OIAD participates, announces the Philippines as 2024’s focus country. Save the date of 14 June 2024 where fair trial rights issues in the Philippines will be addressed on the IFTD conference. Additionally, we announce that call for nominations for the Ebru Timtik Award is open until 1 May 2024.

In 2021, a group of lawyers and lawyers’ organisations came together to establish an annual International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) to be observed every year on 14 June. This initiative is supported by more than 100 legal associations across the world, all of which are committed to the vital importance of the right to a fair trial and the serious challenges to due process rights worldwide. They established a Steering Group for the organisation of IFTD. The decision to establish an IFTD was also accompanied by the establishment of the Ebru Timtik Award.

The Steering Group is formed by a number of other prominent organisations taking part in the work, including the OIAD. Several nominations were received for this year’s IFTD focus country. Following due consideration of the proposals, the Philippines has been chosen as the focus country of 2024.

This decision has been based on identified serious concerns related to the following issues in the country: threats to the independence of judges and lawyers, drud-related extrajudicial killings and accountability, targeting of activists, rights defenders, and civil society organisations through counterterrorism measures, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and arbitrary detentions.

Read the full statement for more details.