“The Crisis of the Belarusian Bar: How to Restore the Right to Defense”: a Report on the Belarusian Bar
On September 30 — October 1, 2022, the European Humanities University Center for Constitutionalism and Human Rights held an International Scientific Conference “The right to legal aid: scientific and practical aspects of the role of human rights lawyers in the context of the development of the Council of Europe document “On the profession of lawyers and access to legal aid” .
As part of the event, on October 1, the presentation of the report “The Crisis of the Belarusian Bar: How to Restore the Right to Defense” took place. The report was prepared jointly by the experts of the Center in partnership with our project “Right to Defense”, the human rights organization “Human Constanta”, the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.
The report restores the chronology of events aimed at depriving the Belarusian bar of its independence and reveals the systemic nature of the destruction of the bar in Belarus; demonstrates the consequences of neglecting the standards of the legal profession and their violation by the state and the professional association of lawyers and their direct impact on the fate of lawyers who are deprived of their profession, and most importantly, of the right to defend those to whom they provide legal help to; contains an action plan on how to restore legal profession and the legal environment in which lawyers could freely and effectively perform their functions.