UKRAINE: OIAD contribution to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review on Ukraine
The OIAD’s alternative report was recently presented within the framework ofthe 54th session of the fourth cycle of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lawyers have been working in a context marked by war, martial law and the temporary occupation of part of the territory. This situation has deeply affected the provision of legal defence, access to justice and lawyers’ professional safeguards.
The report highlights the main challenges facing the legal profession: risks to lawyers’ safety, restrictions on access to clients, breaches of professional safeguards and reported cases of persecution in the occupied territories. In its contribution, the OIAD calls for the strengthening of safeguards protecting the independence of the legal profession and the right to an effective defence.
