Faculty joins move to highlight plight of Egyptian lawyers

Solidarity with lawyers in Egypt who seek to stand up for human rights, as they increasingly face arrest and detention, has been shown by the Faculty of Advocates in conjunction with lawyers’ groups from jurisdictions around the world.

Dorothy Bain QC, convener of the Faculty’s Human Rights & Rule of Law Committee, is one of 20 signatories to a letter which has been sent to the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in protest at repressive moves against lawyers seeking to perform their professional duties.

The letter expresses concern at “the recent increase in the number of arrests of lawyers who provide counsel and representation to human rights defenders”. It also condemns “the intimidation and harassment of lawyers who seek to promote and defend human rights”.

It calls on the President to take immediate steps to end the arrests of lawyers, and to release those being held in violation of international human rights law. It also urges him to reaffirm and uphold Egypt’s commitment to the rule of law and human rights.

“It is a fundamental duty incumbent on the state to protect lawyers and to ensure that they are not prosecuted or threatened with prosecution or with other sanctions for the exercise of their professional duties", the letter asserts. "The state must also ensure that lawyers are able to perform their legal functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.

"The recent arrests and detention of lawyers by the Egyptian authorities, their intimidation and harassment, constitute a prima facie of breach Egypt’s obligations under international human rights conventions and under its own constitution. Further, they appear to constitute an assault on the integrity of the Egyptian justice system and on the rule of law."

The letter was written by the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales, EuroMed Rights, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. Its signatories also represent lawyers in Spain, Belgium, South Africa, Canada and Brazil, among other jurisdictions, and a number of international bodies.