European Democratic Lawyers
International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) Steering Group invites you to join the IFTD Mexico Conference on Wednesday June 14th, which will take place in Mexico City in Dr. Guillermo Floris Margadant room, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas of UNAM from 10:00 to 18:00. Participation in the Conference is free.
Focus Country of 2023: Mexico
Call for Nominations for the Ebru Timtik Award
14 June 2023, Mexico City/Mexico
In 2021, a group of lawyers and lawyers’ organisations came together to establish an annual International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) to be observed every year on 14 June. This initiative is supported by more than 100 legal associations across the world, all of which are committed to the vital importance of the right to a fair trial and the serious challenges to due process rights worldwide. They established a Steering Group for the organization of IFTD.
The Steering Group agreed that in each subsequent year, one country –where fair trial rights are being systemically violated– would be chosen as the focus country, and an event would be organized to mark IFTD, as well as a series of activities around the event to draw attention to the situation in that country. The events include holding a conference on systemic fair trial issues and making a public statement with concrete recommendations on how to tackle these. The decision to establish an IFTD was also accompanied by the establishment of the Ebru Timtik Award. Ebru Timtik is a lawyer from Turkey who lost her life on 27 August 2020 as a result of a 238-day hunger strike she undertook to protest against the systemic violations of fair trial rights which people in Turkey are facing. Every year, on the occasion of the IFTD, the Ebru Timtik Award is made by an independent jury to an individual or individuals and/or an organisation who have or which has made a significant contribution to the defence and promotion of the right to a fair trial in the focus country.
The first IFTD focus country chosen was Turkey, in 2021. A virtual conference was held on 14 June 2021, to mark the occasion. The first Ebru Timtik Award was granted posthumously to Ebru Timtik herself. The second conference, which focused on the systemic fair trial issues in Egypt, took place in Palermo/Italy on 17-18 June 2022. Mohamed El-Baqer and Haitham Mohammadein, two Egyptian human rights lawyers who were in detention at the time, received the Ebru Timtik Award.
2023 International Fair Trial Day Focus Country: Mexico
The Steering Group has expanded since 2021 to include a number of other prominent organisations taking part in the work, all as listed below. Several nominations were received for this year’s IFTD focus country. Following due consideration of the proposals, Mexico has been chosen as the focus country of 2023. This decision is based on the following:
Reports on the situation in Mexico illustrate that many parts of the judicial system in the country suffer from systemic corruption, lack of effective protection of due process rights, ineffective and delayed investigations and trials, discrimination, and improper government influence. Accordingly, there are concerns that the judiciary of some courts and regions fail to provide an effective and timely remedy for those who are wrongly accused of violent crimes or who are victims of crimes or human rights abuses. This becomes more striking against the backdrop of an extremely high violent crime rate and impunity. Evidence of corruption within the judiciary and investigative authorities, among other state institutions, remains a fundamental concern. Reports emphasize that the involvement of the state security forces and prosecutors in criminal activities and ‘serious and widespread human rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings with near total impunity’ is an acute problem.
While Mexico is overall defined as a partially free country in the Freedom House Freedom in the World Report (with a 60/100 ranking), rule of law-related factors in the assessment downgrade Mexico’s ranking. Accordingly, the ‘due process rights protection’ ranking of the country is only ¼, while the ‘judicial independence’ ranking is 2/4. The Global Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project places Mexico at the rank of 115 out of 140 countries worldwide. Mexico’s ‘criminal justice’ ranking in the Index is 128/140, while the ‘civil justice’ ranking is 131/140. The country is among the worst 10 countries when it comes to ‘corruption,’ ranking 134/140.
Enforced disappearances and summary executions remain one of the most important human rights issues in the country, with the state institutions consistently failing to find an effective solution. In 2021 alone, at least 7,698 missing or disappeared person cases were reported, bringing the total number since 1964 to more than 100,000 people. The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances visited Mexico in 2021 and shared its findings in 2022. These findings drew attention to the urgency and seriousness of the issue and urged the Mexican authorities to, among others, increase their efforts to combat enforced disappearances, take genuine steps to eradicate structural impunity, and facilitate coordination between different state institutions.
Mexico is rated as one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders working on organized crimes, corruption, and crimes by state agents. They are targeted, face attacks, and, in some cases, are killed, abducted, and tortured for their legitimate human rights activities by members of organized groups or state agents. 15 journalists were killed between January and September 2022, and between January – June 2022, 12 human rights defenders were killed in Mexico. Despite the seriousness of these crimes, the cases often remain unresolved with impunity shielding those who are responsible.
Arbitrary, prolonged, and unlawful pretrial detention, in many cases without any charges, is a further systemic issue in the Mexican justice system. Ordering pretrial detention is an obligation for the judicial authorities for those charged with several crimes without any regard to the evidence or circumstances of the case file. The widely criticized arraigo detention that allows prosecutors to obtain detention authorization for up to 40 days without a charge is a further problematic practice used to undermine the due process rights of the accused. These broad powers are extensively used by the judicial and prosecutorial authorities and as a result of their frequent application, prisons are overcrowded and prisoners face systematic human rights abuses and dire prison conditions.
In an October 2021 filing of an application to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights underlined some of these systemic issues, particularly those related to the use of detention, torture, and ill-treatment within Mexico’s criminal justice system, and recommended that Mexico:
‘Adapt the country’s legal system to permanently eliminate the concept of arraigo, including the constitutional and legal norms that uphold this practice. While this is being implemented, ensure that all judicial operators who are called upon to apply the concept of arraigo cease to do so by invoking conventionality control, in light of the corresponding inter-American standards.
Provide appropriate training for officials working at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General of Tlalnepantla concerning the absolute prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment during investigations of all crimes, including those that relate to organized crime, and implement a simple, easily accessible system for reporting any such acts.’
Similarly, in a September 2022 statement, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called on Mexico to urgently abolish mandatory pre-trial detention provided under the Constitution. According to the Committee, ‘[o]ne of the most serious consequences of mandatory pre-trial detention has been that many Mexicans spend more than a decade deprived of their liberty, awaiting trial, without sentence and in conditions of serious risk to their lives and personal integrity. It also contributes to prison overcrowding.’
In a judgment published in January 2023, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights also condemned the pre-procedural arraigo as well as the pretrial detention regulated in the 1999 Federal Code of Criminal Procedure, contrary to the American Convention on Human Rights. The Court ordered Mexico to: a) annul (dejar sin efecto) the provisions related to pre-procedural arraigo in its domestic law; and b) adapt its internal legal system on pretrial detention.
Against this dire background, the Organising Committee of the IFTD agreed that focusing on Mexico in 2023 will help draw more attention to the systemic fair trial violations in the country. It will provide support to many human rights defenders, including lawyers and journalists, and judges who are still being targeted for their legitimate activities, who are arbitrarily prosecuted, detained, and who face trials severely lacking in due process and failing to respect fair trial principles.
The IFTD conference will be held on 14 June 2023 in Mexico and will be co-hosted by Mexico-based organisations. Further details of the agenda and the speakers who will participate in the conference will follow over the next few months. For now, we invite you to hold the date.
Call for nominations for the Ebru Timtik Award
The Organising Committee of the IFTD would like to also invite you to nominate one or more individual(s) or an organisation for the Ebru Timtik Award from amongst those who have demonstrated outstanding commitment and sacrifice in upholding fundamental values related to the right to a fair trial in Mexico. The individual(s) or organisation nominated for the award must be or have been active in defending and or promoting the right to a fair trial in Mexico through either his/her/their/its recent outstanding piece of work in relation to this fundamental right or his/her/their/its distinguished long-term involvement in fair trial issues.
The deadline for nominations is 2 May 2023.
To nominate, please send your nominations to nominationsetaward@gmail.com in English and kindly include: (1) the candidate’s detailed bio, (2) a letter signed by the nominating organisation/group of individuals explaining the reasons why they/it consider(s) that the candidate should be granted the Award, and (3) one recommendation/supporting letter from an unrelated, external organisation, if the application is submitted by a group of individuals.
For the details of the award criteria and process please see the attached “Selection criteria for the grant of the Ebru Timtik Fair Trial Award”. After the deadline, a jury composed of independent individuals who are experienced with the right to a fair trial, including one or more from the focus country, will review and assess the nominations and determine the award recipient(s).
Delegation of 60+ International Trial Observers Condemns Court Judgment in Decade-Long Criminal Prosecution of 21 Lawyers from ÇHD (Progressive Lawyers Association) and HHB (People’s Law Office): Delegation Warns That “The World is Watching”
This week, we – more than 60 lawyers from 9 countries representing more than 30 bar associations, NGOs and professional lawyers’ associations – have been observing the final hearings in the mass trial that started in 2013 against 22 lawyers from the ÇHD (Progressive Lawyers Association) and the HHB (People’s Law Office). There are now only 21 left, as Ebru Timtik died – hunger-striking for a fair trial – in the course of these proceedings.
Today, these lawyers have been convicted on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and participating in terrorist propaganda, and lengthy prison sentences have been imposed.
These convictions and sentences are in total violation of the right to a fair trial, the U.N. Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and the rule of law.
The only material facts brought to the Court were strictly linked to the defendants’ professional activities as lawyers in the field of human rights: taking part in a press conference, being present in or near a protest, advising clients of their right to remain silent, defending suspects charged with terrorism, etc. During the inquiry, some of the accused lawyers were subjected to wiretapping for over a year, in an apparent violation of the sanctity of legal professional privilege.
The U.N. Basic Principles specifically guarantee the right of lawyers to participate in public debate and to associate with each other and, further, state that lawyers must never be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes, nor suffer prosecution for any action in accordance with their professional duties.
Moreover, our colleagues were deprived of their right to a fair trial. Their request for sufficient time to present their defence was denied by the Court, which allowed only five short days of hearings for 21 defendants, and rejected the defendants’ request to postpone the hearing in order to permit a proper examination of the evidence, in particular electronic documents the authenticity of which is seriously questioned.
The trial was held in a courtroom at Silivri prison, with heavy police presence. The defendants were separated from their lawyers by two lines of police officers, hindering the ability of the defendants and their lawyers to communicate with confidentiality.
The defendants’ rights were also violated by the failure to complete proceedings within a reasonable time, as the trial has been ongoing for ten years without a proper justification for the protracted proceedings.
In addition, for several of the defendants, this trial relies on facts and evidence that have already been used in the 2017 trial against seven of the same defendants, in violation of the principle that no one should be tried twice for the same offense.
Finally, we are deeply concerned about the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. In attacking these lawyers for their defense of human rights, it is human rights, democracy and the rule of law that are under siege.
We are always proud to stand in solidarity with our courageous colleagues, and we once again demand their immediate release.
The world is watching.
Signatures:
En 2013, il y a dix ans, un procès de masse a débuté contre 22 avocates et avocats, tous membres de l’organisation d’avocats Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD, Turquie) et du People’s Law Office (HHB). Depuis, jusqu’à trois audiences ont eu lieu chaque année – d’abord devant la “Cour d’assises spéciale” (la Haute Cour pénale), puis, en 2014, après un changement dans la loi de procédure pénale de la Turquie, devant la Haute Cour penale ordinaire.
Tous les avocats en question ont été condamnés ou font l’objet de poursuites pour leurs activités professionnelles. En violation des Principes de base des Nations unies relatifs au rôle du barreau, ils sont, d’une part, identifiés aux causes de leurs clients et, d’autre part, limités dans leur liberté d’expression, qui inclut le droit de prendre part à des débats publics sur les droits de l’homme.
Plusieurs des accusés, dont le président du ÇHD, Selçuk KOZAGAÇLI, ont déjà été soumis à des années de détention provisoire. L’une des accusées de ce procès, Ebru Timtik, est mort pendant sa grève de la faim pour obtenir des procès équitables devant les tribunaux turcs.
Des avocats d’Europe et d’autres continents ont observé toutes les audiences. Cette semaine, les observateurs internationaux comprennent plus de 60 avocats de huit pays européens et des États-Unis : Autriche, Belgique, France, Allemagne, Grèce, Italie, Pays-Bas, Espagne/Catalogne et États-Unis. Les avocats représentent divers barreaux locaux, des confédérations européennes et internationales de barreaux et d’autres organisations d’avocats.
L’article 10 de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme et l’article 14 du Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques imposent à la Turquie de garantir à tous les prévenus un procès équitable et public devant un tribunal compétent, indépendant et impartial.
Auparavant, en 2021, à l’occasion de la Journée internationale du procès équitable, dédiée la Turquie cette année-là, le jury est arrivé à la conclusion que ces normes internationales pour un procès équitable sont fréquemment violées en Turquie.
Cette semaine, les observateurs internationaux suivent de très près le procès de ÇHD afin de déterminer si le tribunal respectera les normes internationales en matière de procès équitable et si les violations antérieures de ces principes au cours de ce procès seront corrigées par le tribunal.
Les procès contre les avocats de ÇHD s’inscrivent dans un schéma plus large d’attaque contre les avocats en Turquie et d’identification de ceux-ci avec leurs clients. Les avocats sont injustement criminalisés et poursuivis pour avoir rempli leurs obligations professionnelles. Cette situation est intolérable et constitue une violation manifeste du droit international. De plus, les observateurs internationaux ont conclu que les normes internationales du procès équitable n’ont pas été respectées lors des audiences qu’ils ont observées précédemment.
Nous demandons donc la libération immédiate de tous les avocats incarcérés en raison de leur travail sur des affaires politiques. Ce n’est pas un crime d’être un avocat. Nous continuerons d’insister pour mettre fin à la criminalisation du simple exercice de la profession d’avocat et pour faire respecter les principes fondamentaux de l’État de droit, y compris le droit à un procès équitable pour tous, en Turquie et ailleurs dans le monde.
Signataires:
In 2013, ten years ago, a mass trial started against 22 lawyers, all of them members of the lawyers organisation Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD, Turkey) and of the Peoples Law Office (HHB). Since then up to three hearings have taken place each year – first before the “Special Assize Court” (the Heavy Penal Court), then, in 2014, after a change in penal procedural law of Turkey, before the ordinary Heavy Penal Court.
All lawyers in question were convicted or face charges for their professional activities. In violation of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, they are, firstly, identified with their clients’ causes, and, secondly, limited in their freedom of expression, which includes the right to take part in public discussions about human rights.
Several of the defendants, among them the ÇHD president Selçuk KOZAGAÇLI, have already been subject to years of pretrial detention. One of the defendants in this trial, Ebru Timtik, died during her hunger strike seeking fair trials in the courts of Turkey.
Lawyers from Europe and other continents have observed all hearings. This week the International Observers include more than 60 lawyers from 8 European countries and the USA: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain/Catalonia, and the US. The lawyers represent various local Bar Associations, European and International Bar confederations, and other lawyers’ organisations.
Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights require Turkey to provide all defendants with a fair and public trial by a competent, independent, and impartial court.
Previously, in 2021, on the occasion of the International Fair Trial Day, which focused on Turkey that year, the jury came to the conclusion that these international standards for a fair trial are frequently violated in Turkey.
This week, the International Observers are monitoring the ÇHD trial very closely to determine whether the court will adhere to international fair trial standards and whether prior violations of these principles in the course of this trial will be remedied by the court.
The trials against the lawyers of ÇHD are part of a larger pattern of attacking lawyers in Turkey and identifying them with their clients. Lawyers are unjustly criminalized and prosecuted for fulfilling their professional duties. This is intolerable and in clear violation of international law. Further, the International Observers have concluded that international fair trial standards have not been respected in the hearings they have previously observed.
Therefore we demand the immediate release of all lawyers incarcerated based on their work on political cases. It is not a crime to be a lawyer. We will continue to insist on ending the criminalization of merely exercising the profession of lawyers and on upholding the fundamental principles of the rule of law, including the right to a fair trial for all people in Turkey and elsewhere throughout the world.
Signatories:
Focus Country of 2022: Egypt / Call for Nominations for the Ebru Timtik Award
Hold the Date – 17-18 June 2022, Palermo/Italy
The right to a fair trial has long been recognised by the international community as a fundamental human right. Without a fair trial, every individual risks becoming the victim of a miscarriage of justice, either as an innocent suspect wrongly convicted, or as a victim unable to secure justice for a wrong perpetrated against him or her.
In 2021, an annual International Fair Trial Day was established with a steering group, and the event was supported by more than 100 legal associations. The first conference was held as a virtual event on 14 June 2021 with a focus on fair trial rights in Turkey. It was agreed that in each subsequent year a new focus country where fair trial rights are being challenged would be chosen as the focus country. The Steering Group also decided to establish an Ebru Timtik Award, in recognition of her sacrifice for the right to a fair trial. This award will be granted every year to an individual and/or an organisation from the focus country chosen for that year for the International Fair Trial Day or to an individual and/or an organisation who has been active in defending and or promoting the right to a fair trial in that specific country. An International Fair Trial Day Alliance was also formed among prominent bar associations and lawyers’ organisations across the world which support the initiative.
After considering several proposals for the focus country of the 2022 International Fair Trial Day, the Steering Group have now decided that the focus country for this year is Egypt.
The decision is based on the following:
“The Commission:
[emphasis added]
We are writing at this stage to advise you of this initiative and to invite your organisation to support International Fair Trial Day and attend the conference which will be hosted by Palermo Bar Association and held in Palermo, Italy between 17-18 June 2022. Further details of the programme and of the speakers who will address the conference will follow over the next few months. For now, we would ask you to hold the date.
Call for nominations for the Ebru Timtik Award
We also would like to invite you to nominate one or more individual(s) or an organisation for the Ebru Timtik Award among those who have demonstrated outstanding commitment and sacrifice in upholding fundamental values related to the right to a fair trial in Egypt. The individual(s) or organisation nominated for the award must be or have been active in defending and or promoting the right to a fair trial in Egypt through either his/her/its recent outstanding piece of work in relation to this fundamental right or his/her/its distinguished long-term involvement in fair trial issues. The deadline for nominations is 16 May 2022. To nominate, please send your nominations to nominationsetaward@gmail.com and kindly include: (1) the candidate’s detailed bio, (2) a letter signed by the nominating organisation/group of individuals explaining the reasons why they/it consider(s) that the candidate should be granted the Award, and (3) one recommendation/supporting letter from an unrelated, external organisation, if the application is submitted by a group of individuals.
For the details of the award criteria and process please see the attached “Selection criteria for the grant of the Ebru Timtik Fair Trial Award”. After the deadline, a jury composed of independent individuals who are experienced with the right to a fair trial, including one or more from the focus country, will determine the nominations and reach a decision.
[1] https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/egypt/ and https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/egypt
[2] https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-world/2021
[3] https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/2021/Egypt%2C%20Arab%20Rep./; https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/WJP-INDEX-21.pdf
[4] https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-world/2021
[5] https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/460767/Egypt/Politics-/Sisi-names-first-Christian-as-president-of-Egypt;s.aspx
[6] https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-world/2021
[7] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/egypt-stop-trials-by-emergency-courts/
[8] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/egypt
[9] https://www.achpr.org/sessions/resolutions?id=146
[10] https://www.justiceinitiative.org/uploads/5d96ebd8-1a3e-4bca-afb3-8ed4683896ec/african-commission_el-sharkawi-v.-arab-republic-of-egypt_022021.pdf
[11] https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27314&LangID=E
[12] https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/5570-egypt-quash-verdicts-and-stop-unfair-trials-by-emergency-courts
Download the statement
Today, 14 June 2021, marks the inaugural International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) which will be observed for the first time worldwide. The focus country of the IFTD this year is Turkey, a country that is and has been suffering for many years, from systemic human rights violations and a serious lack of fair trial standards. On the occasion of the IFTD, drawing attention to the deteriorating situation in the country, the undersigned organisations call upon the Turkish authorities to take the necessary steps urgently to instate the right to a fair trial in Turkey and to create an environment under which these fundamental procedural rights can effectively be protected. The undersigned organisations also call upon the international community to increase their efforts to draw attention to the situation in Turkey with a particular focus on the issues around the fair trial principles.
Background of the IFTD
In response to the serious failure of the judicial system in Turkey to protect and respect fair trial principles, lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal began a hunger strike in January 2020. They expressed a common demand of many thousands who were subjected to arbitrary investigations, trials, arrests, detentions, and wrongful convictions. They called on the Turkish government to comply with its obligations to secure and respect the right to a fair trial and to end practices constituting systemic violations of this fundamental right. On 5 April 2020, on Lawyers’ Day in Turkey, they turned their hunger strike into a death fast to underline the vital importance of this demand. Ebru Timtik lost her life on 27 August 2020, the 238th day of her death fast, while Aytaç Ünsal ended his protest on 4 September 2020 following a temporary release order by the Supreme Court which was later withdrawn. He was returned to prison on 10 December 2020.
Fundamental rights and freedoms and principles of the rule of law are under attack not only in Turkey but globally. In many countries, including European countries, there are reports documenting governmental oppression and practices undermining international human rights obligations. Thus, those who carry out activities to condemn, draw attention to and criticise these practices are under constant pressure from the state apparatus, including pressure from the judiciary, whose independence and impartiality is being seriously undermined. Attempts are being made to silence lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians, academics and many others raising their voices against such policies through baseless
accusations against them, e.g. under anti-terror legislation, a practice that has been referred to as ‘judicial harassment’.
The International Fair Trial Day was established along with the Ebru Timtik Award to advocate for the re-establishment of fair trial rights in those countries where fair trial rights are under serious threat. The occasion will be used by the international community to focus on the situation in the country chosen for that year as the focus country and to draw attention to the fair trial issues faced there. Also, an annual Ebru Timtik Award will be granted to an individual and/or an organisation from the focus country that has been active in defending and or promoting the right to a fair trial in that specific country.
Taking into account the background of the IFTD and the continuing deterioration of the situation in the country, Turkey was chosen this year as the focus country. In future years other countries will be chosen to reflect the challenges to the right to fair trial being experienced in those respective jurisdictions.
Call to Action on Turkey
The state of human rights and rule of law in Turkey have been declining particularly since the Gezi Park protests in 2013 which were followed by the collapse of the peace talks in 2015 and the state of emergency declared after the 15 July 2016 coup attempt which remained in place for 2 years until July 2018. The mistreatment of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, opposition politicians, academics, and others who are critical of the current situation reflects a far wider practice in the country of failing to respect fair trial rights, among other fundamental rights and freedoms, especially since the attempted coup of July 2016.
The rapid deterioration seen in human rights has been widely reported and reflected on by the international community, including the UN and Council of Europe organs, each of which has identified serious issues ranging from the lack of independence of the judiciary to the collapse of the main pillars of a democratic system, including separation of powers. Criticisms from these international bodies and from the international community generally have been far ranging from undue interference in fundamental rights and freedoms for political purposes to serious violation of political participation rights of the minority groups such as Kurds.1
Reflecting on the issues identified in these reports, we the undersigned organisations, call on the Turkish authorities to implement the following steps to ensure full protection of the right to a
1 See e.g. the Working Group on the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, adopted on 29 September 2020 at the 45th session of the Human Rights Council of the UN; Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee), the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey, Report | Doc. 15272 | 21 April 2021, https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref- XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=29155&lang=en ; World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index 2020, https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/research-and-data/wjp-rule-law-index-2020
fair trial in the country and to create an environment enabling effective protection of its underlying principles:
limitations on the justice system, as outlined in the report of Human Rights Watch published in April 20194;
The International Fair Trial Day will take place on the 14th of June 2021, from 15h to 17h45 and will include a panel discussion on the judiciary and civil society.
Please check out the: Agenda of the meeting
The right to a fair trial has long been recognised by the international community as a fundamental human right. Without a fair trial every individual risks becoming the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Either as an innocent suspect wrongly convicted, or as a victim unable to secure justice for a wrong perpetrated against them.
Ebru Timtik was one of 18 lawyers in Turkey who were members of the Progressive Lawyers Association, some of which were working at the People’s Law Office, made subject to a prosecution in the Istanbul 37th Assize Court under Articles 314 and 220 of the Turkish Penal Code for terrorist offences. She and her colleagues were convicted on 20 March 2019 after a trial during which basic procedural safeguards and internationally recognised fair trial principles were ignored. Her conviction was based on the testimony of anonymous witnesses, many of which gave inconsistent testimony in relation to alleged facts and time periods. Documents allegedly obtained from government authorities in Belgium and Holland were never authenticated but they were nevertheless used as grounds for convictions without her lawyers having access to them. The originals of digital documents which were allegedly seized in a musical centre were also not made available to the defence lawyers. They could not see, analyse or challenge these documents which were never shown to have existed. Lawyers acting in her defence were frequently prevented from participating in the proceedings and in some circumstances were excluded.
The defects in the trial process led Ebru Timtik together with one of her colleagues, Aytaç Ünsal, to commence a “death fast” following a hunger strike which began on 5 April 2020, the Turkish “Day of the Lawyer”. Sadly, on 27 August 2020 Ebru Timtik died whilst continuing to protest both her innocence of the charges on which she had been convicted, and the lack of respect for fundamental fair trial principles in the criminal justice system which had prejudiced both her and her colleagues, and many thousands of other individuals in Turkey.
In recognition of her sacrifice, and in order to focus attention on the plight of those in countries around the globe who are facing prosecution in circumstances where fair trial principles are not being observed or respected, a number of international bar associations and lawyers organisations have come together to arrange an annual “International Fair Trial Day” which will be observed every year on 14 June.
Steps are also being undertaken to introduce a new annual Ebru Timtik Award to recognise an individual or an organisation who has or which has made an exceptional contribution towards securing fair trial rights in the country on which the International Fair Trial Day is focusing for the year in question. Each year a conference will be held, either online or at a physical location in a country chosen because of the level of concern with regard to the lack of respect for fair trial rights in that jurisdiction at that time. There will also be events in the countries across the word on each International Fair Trial Day to raise awareness of the situation in the focus country. The steering group consisting of Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), European Bars Federation (FBE), European Democratic Lawyers (EDL-AED), French National Bar Council (CNB), International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), International Association of Lawyers (UIA), International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Italian National Bar Council (CNF), Law Society of England and Wales, Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L), Ayşe Bingöl Demir and Serife Ceren Uysal agreed that the first conference will be held as a virtual event on 14 June 2021 and will focus on fair trial rights in Turkey.
