Events on Human Rights Issues
Joint event with the Stiftung Forum Recht on October 17, 2023: How can access to law become more just?
Roadmap to abolition: What role for bar associations?
Discussion Round at the DAV-Haus in Berlin on the Role of the ECtHR in Turkey
DAV believes that raising awareness to human rights is one of the key elements to promote them. For this reason, it arranges conferences and other events where human rights activists and all interested can be updated on current situation in particular countries and discuss crucial questions.
In early March 2018, DAV organized a joint conference with the Law Society of England and Wales, Lawyers for Lawyers, ELDH and the Observatoire international des avocats en danger questioning the effectiveness of the ECHR as a regional human rights system for Europe, and for Turkey in particular.
Rıza Türmen, former Turkish judge at the ECHR, Michael O’Boyle, Former Deputy Registrar of the ECHR, Turkish professor Başak Çalı and British professor Françoise Hampson addressed both legal and political sides of the issue.
At the end of the subsequent discussion with lawyers and those affected from all over Europe, there was unanimous agreement: European human rights lawyers must network better in order to present lawsuits to the ECtHR as one package. This could possibly bring Strasbourg out of its state of shock and strengthen the rule of law in Turkey as well as the human rights system at the European level.
Day of the Endangered Lawyer
Day of the Endangered Lawyer“ – on 24 January 1977 four Spanish trade union lawyers and an employee in their office in Madrid were murdered by neo-fascists. A few years ago, European lawyers associations chose this sad occasion to establish the "Day of the Endangered Lawyer".
DAV commemorates this day by organising discussions on 24 January together with Amnesty International and other organisations.
We call for the attention to lawyers all over the world who are facing harassment, threats, persecution or even torture and whose work is therefore made increasingly difficult.
Past events addressed the following topics:
2018: The situation of the legal profession in Turkey
2019: Representing Turkish cases before the ECtHR: Approaches and Chances, Expert breakfast hosted by Amnesty International and Deutscher Anwaltverein
2020: Expert Discussion on the alarming situation of lawyers in Turkey and Iran – hosted by Amnesty International and Deutscher Anwaltverein
2021: Joint Seminar on the situation of lawyers in Azerbaijan – hosted by Law Society of England and Wales, Lawyers for Lawyers, European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & Human Rights and Deutscher Anwaltverein
2022: Video messages with expert statements on the situation of the legal profession in Poland and Belarus
2023: Joint event with RAK, RAV and other organizations with the focus on Afghanistan
2024: Joint event with RAK and RAV in solidarity with persecuted colleagues in Iran
Press conference of the Coalition of the Day of the Endangered Lawyer am 22. Januar 2024
Access to justice in humanitarian crises – First international DAV Human Rights Forum (as part of the PILnet Global Forum)
In November 2018, DAV held a side-event on legal aid as part of humanitarian first assistance in frames of the PILnet European Pro Bono Forum in Berlin. The focus of the DAV conference was on the question of how access to justice can be guaranteed without exception, even in crisis situations. First, Philipp Worthington, Managing Director of ELIL gGmbH inspired the large audience with his personal story in one of the so-called "Spark Talks". The three interactive workshops following his introduction dealt with both the legal framework of legal and the practical side. They also examined how the DAV's demand for a legally stipulated right to individual legal advice in humanitarian emergencies can be put into practice.
Human Rights Evets at the DAV Annual Lawyers Conference
The DAV Human Rights Committee in cooperation with other DAV entities arranges workshops and topical discussions on human rights current challenges under umbrella of the DAV Annual Lawyers Conference, among recent as follows:
2017: The rule of law and its threats from international terrorism
2018: Turkey - On the way out of the rule of law? (No) Help from Strasbourg?
2019: Europe's External Borders - No Man's Land for Human Rights?
2020: Corporate Social Responsibility (of law firms) – in between pro bono, human rights protection and business model
2021: The NSU 2.0 Complex - Threatened Lawyers in Germany
2022: If the defense of human rights leads to prosecution - the dismantling of the Rule of Law by state measures against lawyers
2023: Environmental and climate protection as a human right
Another special event in frames of the DAV Annual Lawyers Conference is offered annually by the DAV Section of International Commercial Law in a form of a luncheon. The past Human Rights Luncheons were following:
2017: Situation of the legal profession in the People's Republic of China and access to justice, Lawyer Chen Guangcheng, Washington D.C
2018: Upholding human rights before international tribunals, Rechtsanwalt Prof. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Schomburg, Berlin
2019: Human Rights Luncheon by Mikołaj Pietrzak, President of the Warsaw Bar Association, Warsaw
2021: Access to justice at the EU's external borders, Rechtsanwalt Dr. Cord Brügmann, Berlin
2022: Human rights luncheon: Criminalization of humanitarian aid. Inside view and legal classification of the charges in Greece, Seán Binder, Lesbos
2023: Human Rights Luncheon to Ruanda, Victor Mugabe, Kigali