PATFox to be presented at the UIA 67th Congress

This Saturday 28th of October, our project coordinator Alessia Schiavon (FIBGAR) will present the project at the annual congress of the International Union of Lawyers (UIA). The congress is taking place in Rome from 25 to 29 October.

Established in 1927 and with members in 110 countries, the UIA is a global and multi-cultural organization for the legal profession that facilitates professional development, stimulates learning and networking, and promotes the Rule of Law. At present, through its collective members (bars, federations, and associations) and individual members, the Union Internationale de Avocats (UIA) brings together two million lawyers from 110 countries.

Alessia Schiavon will be speaking at the session organised by the UIA Institute for the Rule of Law (UIA-IROL). The mission of the UIA-IROL is to promote the Rule of Law and address human rights issues. Access to justice, independence of the justice system and freedom and independence of the legal profession, being fundamental components of the rule of law, are also main issues of concern for the UIA-IROL.

The UIA-IROL session will discuss two different but interlinked topics:

• Reflections on the protection of the Freedom of Expression of Lawyers

Protecting the freedom of expression of lawyers, including but not limited to the legal duty to represent their clients in court, is undeniably crucial to ensure an effectively free and independent practice and therefore enable the legal profession to fully assume its role in upholding the Rule of Law, advancing access to justice, and protecting human rights. While regional and international instruments and jurisprudence acknowledge an enhanced protection to freedom of expression of lawyers, this protection cannot be considered absolute. The first part of the discussion will therefore focus on addressing the scope of this protection inside and outside the courtroom - including in social media and the press - and, in particular, outlining justification for legitimate limitations in order to guarantee that they are not misused to validate unwarranted restrictions and arbitrarily silence lawyers. We will look at specific egregious countries and cases of concerns, and actions taken, for protecting the freedom of expression of lawyers.

• Strengthening and improving guarantees for the legal profession

In a context of increasingly frequent, various and serious attacks and interferences on the independence of the legal profession, and against lawyers individually, effectively strengthening international, regional and domestic standards of protection appears more urgent than ever. This concern is at the heart of the Council of Europe’s current process of elaboration of a legal instrument on the legal profession, and has been expressly identified as a challenge by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Ms Margaret Satterthwaite, in her first report. This second part of the discussion will focus on identifying needs, shortcomings and lacks in the existing protection framework in order to formulate specific recommendations on this crucial issue and formulating a UIA collective framework for strengthening the domestic, regional, and international mechanism for the protection of lawyers.

The debate will be chaired by PRADEL, Director General - UIA-IROL, (Talma) Paris, France, and moderated by Carlos FATÁS MOSQUERA, Deputy Director General, UIA-IROL (Alion Abogados)

Barcelona, Spain; Julie GOFFIN, Director of the Protection of Lawyers Section, UIA-IROL, (Alter Egaux Avocats), Brussels, Belgium; Avi SINGH, Deputy Director General, UIA-IROL, (Cicero Chambers), New Delhi, India.

François MOYSE Director of the Rule of Law Section, UIA-IROL (Moyse & Associates) Luxembourg Hatem MZIOU President of the Tunisian National Bar Association (Cabinet Me Hatem Mziou) Sfax, Tunisia Kosuke OIE International Human Rights Committee (Japan Federation of Bar Associations) Tokyo, Japan Marie-Aimée PEYRON CNB Vice-President, Former President of the Paris Bar Association, Paris, France, will join the discussion.

The program of the Congress is available here.