27/11/20

CCBE Human Rights Award 2020

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) grants its 2020 Human Rights Award to seven Egyptian lawyers currently in prison and grants an exceptional posthumous Human Rights Award to Turkish lawyer Ebru Timtik who died in August 2020.

The seven Egyptian lawyers who have distinguished themselves in the defence of human rights are: Haytham Mohammadein, a human rights lawyer and labour activist already arrested several times who was last arrested on 12 May 2019. He remains in pre-trial detention today. Hoda Abdelmoniem, a lawyer, former member of the National Council for Human Rights, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Coalition of Egyptian Women and consultant for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF). She was brutally arrested in the middle of the night of 1st November 2020 by 20 officers who forced the door of her apartment and blindfolded her. Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy, a lawyer, member of the ECRF and co-founder of the Egyptian Association of Families of the Disappeared (EAFD) currently being held in Aqrab prison. Mahienour El-Massry, a lawyer, often described as a voice of the revolution and active in the defence of women's rights and many other citizen’s rights, who was detained several times and last arrested on 22 September 2019. She is currently being held in Al Qanatar Women's Prison. Mohamed El-Baqer, a lawyer and Director of Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, arrested on 29 September 2019 and still remains in pre-trial detention. Mohamed Ramadan, a lawyer whose work involves legally representing human rights defenders, arrested on 10 December 2018 and still held in pre-trial detention. Zyad El-Eleimy, a lawyer and a former parliamentarian in Egypt arrested on 25 June 2019 in Cairo currently held in pretrial detention in Tora prison.
 
Please consult the background document here for more information on these lawyers.

Ebru Timtik was a distinguished Turkish lawyer belonging to the Progressive Lawyers Association and the People's Law Office. Together with several other lawyers, she was victim of judicial harassment and was accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation under Turkey’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws. She did not receive a fair trial and was sentenced to 13 years and 6 months in prison. Together with lawyer Aytaç Ünsal, she started a hunger strike in January 2020 to denounce their unfair trial as well as the unfair trial of several dozenTurkish lawyers. Ebru Timtik passed away on 27 August 2020.
 
Please consult the background document here for more information on Ebru Timtik.
 
The virtual Award ceremony will be held during the CCBE Plenary Session on 27 November in the presence of representatives of the recipients of the Award and the presence of Mr. Diego García-Sayán, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers who will deliver a keynote speech.

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