Reaching a global audience

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Hundreds of lawyers and students are fighting injustice as part of the Law Society’s international work.

About 18 months ago, the international human rights work of the Law Society was more or less moribund. The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) existed, but had no resources. Its ability to engage the profession in human rights work was severely limited.

Then things began to change. After a review carried out by an expert group, a series of recommendations was made. The central theme of these proposals was that the Law Society, as a professional body representing solicitors, should, acting through the IHRC, become more of a facilitator for international human rights work. It should also seek to engage a wider group of solicitors, students, trainees and others in its work. This has been done.

Since October last year, almost 30 events have taken place. Many of these have been held jointly with other groups, such as the Solicitors International Human Rights Group, the Human Rights Lawyers Association, the Society for Asian Lawyers and the Hindu Rights Action Force.

Academic centres, such as London Metropolitan University and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, have also been engaged, as well as non-governmental institutions, including Amnesty International and Peace Brigades International.

The subject matter at these events has ranged from Guantanamo to Chechnya, through to Pakistan, Colombia and Malaysia, to the rule of law in Russia. Many other events are planned. One committee member, together with the Law Society policy adviser on human rights, co-ordinated a large delegation of lawyers to visit Colombia this summer.

Furthermore, nearly 250 lawyers and students have been trained to undertake interventions on behalf of lawyers and others persecuted overseas, with another 200 waiting for further training courses. An international action team of lawyers, who are prepared to offer their services pro bono for human rights assignments, has been established. The Society has also engaged in high-profile campaigns on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan. It has run a successful campaign to raise funds for Zimbabwe, intervened in death penalty cases in the US, and is taking a lead to highlight the plight of detainees in Guantanamo.

Much more has been achieved and more is planned. The zest with which solicitors and law students have thrown themselves into these activities shows the best values of the profession at work. There is an appetite to engage in the protection of international human rights.

This level of activity shows what can be done with modest resources and the right level of commitment. Lawyers have a paramount duty to uphold the rule of law and protect fundamental freedoms.

However turbulent the political and financial environment, we can all make some contribution. Perhaps it is at times precisely like these that we need more than ever to get involved, at some level, to protect others more vulnerable than ourselves.

When everything around us in our professional lives is in a constant state of flux, perhaps it does us good to focus on those enduring values which may have attracted us to the law in the first place. One of the most important contributions we can make is to commit ourselves as guardians of freedom and fundamental rights.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the office holders and the executive at the Law Society, in particular the dedication and expertise of members of the Society’s international department and the IHRC. I hope that the gathering momentum of engagement in international human rights at the Society continues and strengthens.