For those that don’t know the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) is an independent committee of the Bar Council dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law and human rights around the world and is specifically committed to the protection of persecuted judges, lawyers, human rights defenders and legal organisations. The Committee does not have a domestic mandate and does not attempt to replicate the important civil rights work of organisations such as Justice and Liberty or of individual practitioners involved in human rights litigation save in those circumstances where it can provide added value. Instead, the BHRC focus is to provide much needed practical assistance and moral support to the international human rights community, especially to those elements that operate in the most difficult legal climates around the world. What follows is a brief summary of the recent work of the Committee during 2005. We hope its engages your interests and encourages you to get involved.

An important year

2005 was another important year for both human rights and the work of the Bar Human Rights Committee. It was a year dominated by controversies surrounding the so-called “War on Terror” where some of the most basic international human rights standards were called into question. The year began with further harrowing accounts of life in Iraq and conditions of detention in US facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram and Abu Ghraib. Huge concern was also expressed about the alleged “outsourcing of torture” and the practice known as “extraordinary rendition.” In the UK debate raged about the Government’s anti-terror strategy and how to properly balance rights and security. Yet the year also witnessed another set of groundbreaking judgements by the House of Lords that reaffirmed the centrality of human rights from the absolute nature of the legal prohibition against torture and the fruits of its use to the dangers of pro-longed detention without trial.

Unsurprisingly, the Committee and its members continued to make a significant contribution in this fight to uphold the rule of law. Retiring Chair, Peter Carter QC, made a number of important interventions highlighting concerns about the “war on terror”. Other members lodged important submissions in A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department and in the Supreme Court case Rasul v Bush that established that the right of habeas corpus did indeed extend to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. More recently, the Committee lodged an amicus brief in the case of Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld in the US Supreme Court, challenging attempts to remove the right of Guantanamo detainees to apply for habeas corpus in the federal courts.

The Africa initiative

Yet concerns over the “war against terror” were by no means the whole of 2005. It was also a year of renewed hope that witnessed the emergence of international initiatives on poverty reduction, debt relief and greater investment in Africa. It is perhaps too early to judge whether the programme of the Africa Commission, launched so passionately by Sir Bob Geldof at the BHRC’s biennial lecture at St Paul’s Cathedral, will result in fundamental change for the ordinary people of Africa. However, few can doubt the sense of focus it gave both civil society and Western governments alike. 2005 saw the Committee implement one of the largest library resources and legal training initiatives ever undertaken across the African continent. Last year also saw the production of a Human Rights Manual and Sourcebook for Africa and accompanying CD-Rom edited by Keir Starmer QC [on behalf of the BHRC in association with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL).] This manual has already been distributed widely in Botswana, Ghana, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

We are now engaged in a joint initiative led by the Attorney General [involving the Bar Council, Law Society, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Department for International Development] to establish a Pan-African Lawyers Website, strengthen the professional and ethical standards of professional bodies, and provide a more comprehensive training programme for the judiciary, police, and lawyers in an effort to stamp out unlawful practices and abuse. To this end the BHRC has conducted judicial, advocacy and “train the trainer” missions in, Kenya, Cameroon, Malawi, Nigeria and the Sudan. I believe the work of Andrew Hall QC and his Africa team have made an enduring contribution to good governance and respect for the rule of law throughout the continent.

Other important initiatives

Yet Africa was but one part of a much bigger picture. Throughout the year the Committee worked tirelessly to secure its basic mandate by defending the rights of judges, human rights lawyers, activists and judges who have come under attack from Zimbabwe to Afghanistan to China. These activities continued to be supplemented by international judicial training courses, fact-finding missions, and international trial observations. The Committee also strengthened its involvement in a number of other international projects including its support for death penalty defence work where it continued to send junior barrister volunteers to Kingston, Jamaica to support local lawyers undertaking death row cases at first instance and on appeal. This was only been possible due to the financial support of a number of Chambers including 18 Red Lion Court, 187 Fleet Street, 2 Bedford Row and 3 Raymond Buildings. Elsewhere the Committee was intimately involved in efforts to ensure that Turkey fully complies with its EU human rights obligations through its’ membership of the EU-Turkey Civic Commission on Accession. [In June 2005 the Committee held an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) conference in Diyarbakir to evaluate whether the new Turkish Law on Compensation for Damage Arising from Terror and Combating Terror was ECHR compliant. In September the Committee cost hosted the Second International Conference on EU, Turkey and the Kurds at the European Parliament in Brussels. It also conducted a number of fact-finding missions and trial observations including the trial of the Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk.]

What Justice Reconstruction Programmes

But perhaps the most significant expansion of the Committee’s work in 2005 came in the field of fragile state and post conflict justice reconstruction. Over the course of the last year the Committee has developed legal capacity building programmes in some of the most war torn countries of the world. For example, in November 2005 the Committee sent Michael Birnbaum QC and a team of lawyers to Khartoum and Darfur in partnership with the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) to help strengthen mechanisms under the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. Elsewhere the BHRC is committed to rolling out innovative programmes with its partner organisations in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq throughout the course of 2006. For example, our “Access To Justice Programme” in Afghanistan is leading to over 10 previously ransacked libraries being stocked with over 8000 books in Dari/Farsi, Arabic, Pashto and English. We are compiling a human rights manual for the country, which will be ready for dissemination when the Committee’s joint legal training programme with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) begins in April 2006.

Similar efforts are being replicated in Palestine. [Last year the Committee worked with the Public Committee Against Torture In Israel in relation to Israel’s “targeted prevention” policy, and with Adalah, the Arab Minority Rights Centre in Israel. Adalah is a legal and human rights organisation based in Haifa, which has brought many test cases before the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of dispossessed Palestinians.] The Committee has now received funding to train Palestinian lawyers in human rights law and evidence gathering techniques with a view to utilising all available legal remedies for victims of the human rights abuses within the territory of the Palestinian Authority, Israel or before international courts. The Committee has funds to send six barristers to Ramallah to assist in the training for a period of two months each starting from this summer for the next twelve months. I urge all those lawyers who are interested to contact the Committee.

Engaging with Islamic communities

Other new programmes for 2006 include a renewed effort to engage with Islamic communities across the world through the Committee’s newly established Islamic Engagement Unit. This project builds on our work with civic institutions in countries like Syria, where we have conducted a number of workshops and international exchanges including with the Faculty of Law at Damascus University, and also Bahrain where we have closely monitored attacks on Islamic civic and human rights organisations. We are committed to broadening our reach by encouraging mutual understanding between cultures through lecture and exchange programme, which help introduce Western lawyers to the practice of Islamic scholars and human rights campaigners.

Protecting vulnerable NGOs

Elsewhere the Committee has decided to create a new NGO Support Unit. The purpose of the Unit is to protect those bona fide organisations that have come under attack from authoritarian governments who oppose efforts of civil society to entrench democracy and the rule of law in their respective countries. I believe the recent crackdown on NGO’s in a number of countries presents a new and dangerous threat to the attempts of civil society to engender change and respect for the rule of law in many emerging fledgling democracies. Recent events in Russia are a case in point. These organisations need our support now. We know the power that these NGOs can sometimes have on the future development of society.

[For example, the London based Kurdish Human Rights Project, through its ECHR litigation programme and public awareness projects, has had a tremendous impact on the human rights situation in Turkey. Its cases have led to the abolition of the death penalty, the dismantling of the state security courts, limits on periods of detention, as well as giving protection to numerous dissident parliamentarians, intellectuals and human rights defenders. The European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) based at London Metropolitan University conducts similar ECHR litigation and has developed a sustainable network of linked NGOs within the Russian Federation. It is probably why the Russian authorities are keen to monitor and curtail its activities.]

BHRC reform and the formation of new unit

These are just some of the reasons why the Committee has created a new Post Conflict Legal Reconstruction Unit, an Islamic Engagement Unit, and a NGO Protection Unit led by Professor Bill Bowring. I have also asked new Vice-Chair, Tim Otty, to set up an International Advocacy Unit to deepen our involvement in international litigation that helps entrench the rule of law and protect fundamental rights. We hope these new units will underpin the Committee’s work in these crucial areas. To that end these units will be supported by a revamped new proactive Media Liaison Unit dedicated to enhancing public awareness of both the Committee’s traditional and new areas of work.

Finally, The Committee would like to thank the Bar Council for its annual grant without which it could not function and the outgoing Chairman, Peter Carter QC, and Projects Officer, Jennifer Geen, for all their hard work over the last three years. Mention should also be made of Garden Court Chambers who have committed themselves to providing the Committee with a secure home and access to their extensive facilities free of charge. Yet, the truth remains that if we are to continue to maintain and expand our activities we also need your support and donations. I believe 2006 will be another vital year for both human rights and the work of the Committee and we urge you to get involved in any way you can. The Committee can be contacted at the address provided below. We look forward to hearing from you.

BHRC
Garden Court Chambers
57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3LS
Tel: 0207 993 7755
Fax: 0207 993 7700
Email: bhrc@compuserve.com
Website: www.barhumanrights.org.uk