2026 General Assembly: Handover of the presidency in Rome
On 17 June 2026, OIAD members will meet in Rome for their annual meeting. Our General Assembly, to be held at the headquarters of the Consiglio Nazionale Forense (CNF), will provide an opportunity to review a year of significant activity and outline the Observatory’s future direction, as attacks on the legal profession remain a major concern worldwide.
The event will be accessible both in person and remotely and will gather OIAD members as well as external participants interested in issues relating to the protection of lawyers and the defence of the rule of law. Discussions will be simultaneously interpreted into French, English, Spanish and Italian.
Once again, the General Assembly will be divided into two sessions:
Closed session (9.30am – 11.30am) – Reserved for active and associate OIAD members, who will review the year’s main achievements. This session will also include the election of the new Board members and the presentation of strategic priorities for the coming years by the French National Bar Council (CNB), which will assume the presidency for the 2026–2027 term.
Open session (11.45 am – 1.15 pm) – This session will be open to the public and will honour those practising law in particularly challenging contexts. Testimonies from El Salvador, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will shed light on the threats, pressures and obstacles faced by many legal professionals in the course of their work.
The afternoon will feature two workshops, during which participants will learn about the results of the survey conducted by the OIAD among its members and discuss the initiatives and best practices developed by the Observatory. A second workshop will be dedicated to the presentation of the report from the International Mission of Lawyers in Guatemala, providing feedback from the field on the fact-finding mission in which the OIAD participated in October 2025.
Detailed programme: https://protect-lawyers.org/wp-content/uploads/Programme-AG-2026-EN.pdf
Link to access the event: https://consiglionazionaleforense-it.zoom.us/j/87343566479?pwd=baHJkNrtaZzLE8SFkwkXQLIMjXRPnS.1
Practical information for OIAD members:
Member organisations are invited to confirm their attendance, specifying:
- The chosen method of participation (online or in person)
- The number of representatives expected to attend and their email addresses
For any enquiries or to confirm your attendance, please contact the OIAD at the following email address:contact@protect-lawyers.org .
