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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Post-election violence 2008 - Index of articles & images
SADC,
AU & EU officials in Zim should call for a stop to intimidation
of lawyers
International
Bar Association (IBA)
June 13, 2008
http://www.ibanet.org/iba/article.cfm?article=173
The International
Bar Association's Human Rights Institute [IBAHRI] today called
on the Southern African Development Community, the African Union
and the United Nations to publicly condemn the recent escalation
of intimidation and harassment of lawyers and human rights defenders
in Zimbabwe.
Lawyers in Zimbabwe have
reported that it is increasingly dangerous to represent clients
who are either human rights activists or in opposition to the government.
Several prominent human rights lawyers have been threatened or physically
attacked in recent days and some have abandoned their legal practice
and gone into hiding as a consequence of threats and harassment.
The IBAHRI recently
drew attention to human rights lawyers Andrew
Makoni and Harrison Nkomo who fled Zimbabwe for South Africa
last week after receiving information they were on a list of lawyers
targeted for assassination.
The IBAHRI reaffirms
its condemnation of the systematic targeting of lawyers and human
rights defenders in Zimbabwe and urges the international community
to hold accountable those carrying out the abuses. The intimidation
of lawyers, who are lawfully representing their clients, violates
Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples'
Rights.
Zimbabwe is a member
of the United Nations and is thus obliged to abide by the Basic
Principles on the Role of Lawyers to 'ensure that lawyers
. . . are able to perform all of their professional functions without
intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.'
Furthermore, the 1981 Legal Practitioners Act of Zimbabwe provides
that 'legal practitioners are entitled to represent their
clients without fear of being harassed and intimidated by the authorities.'
Mark Ellis, Executive
Director of the International Bar Association said, 'The Southern
African Development Community, the African Union and the United
Nations should use their influence to prevail on Robert Mugabe's
regime to stop intimidating lawyers and human rights defenders.'
He added. 'The rule of law is a pre-condition of democratic
elections and without it the upcoming presidential elections will
not be free and fair.'
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