“A joint report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders—a partnership between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)—and the International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD) presents findings from the judicial observation of the first hearing in the trial of 20 individuals involved in the Saturday Mothers/People movement on February 27, 2024. They are being prosecuted for participating in peaceful gatherings, highlighting the systematic attacks on the right of assembly in Turkey. The next hearing will be held this Friday, June 7, 2024.” Read the full press release: Read the joint report on our website.

As we approach the final phase of the trial for the assassination of the former President of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, Tahir Elçi, on 28 November 2015, the OIAD is joining forces with the international legal community. The Observatory and 29 other organisations have issued a joint statement denouncing the apparent impunity that surrounds this assassination and the lack of a fair trial in the ongoing criminal proceedings. For more information on the case, we invite you to read the joint statement, which provides detailed information. A summary of the case is also available below. HOW CAN I TAKE ACTION? Join the mobilisation! Help us spread the word: In addition to the joint statement, the Observatory has prepared a graphic leaflet recapitulating the Tahir Elçi’s murder trial, which is available in several languages. Feel free to spread it freely through your media outlets to raise public awareness of this case. Download the OIAD’s leaflet by clicking on the flags:                                 Call on Türkiye’s Ministry of Justice to ensure justice for Mr Elçi by holding those responsible for his death accountable in trials compliant with international legal standards and […]

On 14 June, the International Fair Trial Day will take place in Manila, Philippines, where legal experts from around the world will discuss the challenges to access to justice in Philippine society. The International Fair Trial Day Conference and the Ebru Timtik Award Ceremony will feature a diverse group of the Philippines-based and international panellists and moderators, including prominent representatives of international human rights oversight mechanisms, judges, lawyers, human rights activists, researchers, and academic figures. The moderators are from various international organizations forming the Steering Group of the International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) and Ebru Timtik Award. The keynote speakers and panellists will bring a wide range of expertise and experiences from different legal and human rights backgrounds, ensuring comprehensive and insightful discussions on the pressing fair trial rights related issues in the Philippines and beyond throughout the event. The day will be divided into four sessions covering: the protection of lawyers and judicial independence; the targeting of lawyers, journalists, activists, CSOs and other HRDs in the context of counterterrorism, anti-drug and related policies; arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings; accountability and remedies. The day will conclude with the presentation of the Ebru Timtik Award to […]

On June 14, 2023, around 300 human rights lawyers, judges, reporters, and associations worldwide attended online and in-person to the third edition of the International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) and Ebru Timtik Award. The Conference had the participation as panellists of eminent lawyers, human rights defenders, victims and academics from Mexico, as well as members of the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. The report released today summarizes the issues addressed at the Conference, especially on the fair trial abuses and violations occurring in Mexico. The panellists addressed issues such as the excessive use of pretrial detention and the constitutional requirement that judges impose mandatory pre-trial detention on some crimes, attacks to judicial independence many courts and judges are facing, the lack of justice in cases of enforced disappearances and torture, as well as the unequal access to justice and the incredible cost for women and indigenous peoples that face impunity. One of the case studies highlighted in the report is the murder of prominent human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa, whose trial before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was closely followed by the Observatory. The OIAD […]

Having taken note of the violent arrest of our colleague, Sonia Dahmani, lawyer at the Tunisian Bar, inside the Bar Association, on Saturday 11 May 2024, by hooded individuals who roughed up lawyers and journalists present, Having taken note of the press release issued by the Tunis section of the National Bar Association of Tunisia, which held an emergency meeting on 11 May, calling for a general strike, The undersigned : RECALL that on 18 March 1969 Tunisia ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted in 1968 by the United Nations, which protects in particular the rights to life, liberty and security, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the prohibition of arbitrary detention, RECALL that on 23 September 1988 Tunisia also ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted in 1987 by the United Nations and its Optional Protocol, on 29 June 2011, adopted in 2002, EXPRESS THEIR INDIGNATION at the verbal and physical violence perpetrated against Tunisian lawyers and journalists with the aim of intimidating and silencing them, CONDEMN the violent arrest of a lawyer and chronicler who, after making comments on television about the situation in the […]