Our friends from Turkey Litigation Support Project invite you for two online discussion panels: 1.March 3, 2021 at 16.00 (CET) – first panel on Turkey’s State of Emergency Inquiry Commission: A Means to Delay Justice? – registration link: https://bit.ly/3pVlf67 2. March 4, 2021 at 18.00 (CET) – second panel on Academic Autonomy and Freedom in Turkey: The Case of Boğaziçi University – registration link: https://bit.ly/2NwtiIR
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Today, before the Diyarbakir 10th Heavy Penal Court, a hearing in the case concerning Tahir Elci’s killing is taking place. Despite of declarations from high officials, both the investigation and the trial in Court raise serious doubts on its transparency and its correctness. Therefore, the European Association of Lawyers (AEA-EAL) issued a letter to Minister of Justice of the Republic of Turkey pointing out a number of problems noticed by independent organisations supervising the trial. We also endorsed a UN urgent action letter on Failure of Turkey to effectively investigate Tahir Elçi’s killing and calling United Nations to undertake urgent steps to secure the fair trail. Both letters can be found below for download: AEA-EAL letter Turkey UN Letter Turkey Tahir Elçi ((1966 – 28 November 2015) was a Kurdish lawyer and the Dean of Diyarbakır Bar Association. In 1993 he was became a lawyer, and a member of the Cizre Bar Association and defending people against the Turkish state at the European Commission of Human Rights (ECHR). In November 1993 he was detained and on the 10 December 1993 he was remanded to prison accused of links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s armed wing. He was released from custody on 17 February 1994 together with other defendants. Between 1996 and 2006 he was active at the Diyarbakir Bar association as a manager and in 2012 he was elected its Dean. On 23 March 2014, he was the lawyer in the Kuşkonar massacre case in the ECHR, in which Turkey was condemned for massacring Kurdish civilians and blaming the PKK. Elçi was detained several times and received death threats after saying the banned PKK should not be regarded as a terrorist organization. In October 2015, Elçi was detained by Turkish authorities and accused of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” after having said in an interview with CNN Türk, that the PKK was not a terrorist organization. He was killed in the Sur district of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey on 28 November 2015. He was shot during a shootout between police and members of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the PKK’s youth wing, following a press statement during which he had been calling for an end to violence between the PKK and the Turkish state. Two members of the YDG-H shot and killed two police officers and fled down the Yenikapı street, where Tahir Elçi was holding the press conference beside the “Four-legged Minaret” of the Sheikh Matar Mosque. As the YDG-H militants ran down the street and past the scene of the press conference, police officers opened fire on them. Elçi was shot in the back of the head during the shootout and the YDG-H militants escaped. The same day, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDA) condemned the assassination and called for an independent investigation. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) called the shooting a “planned assassination,” and protests erupted in Turkey after Elçi’s killing. Elçi’s brother Ahmet Elçi was quoted as saying that his brother was “murdered by the state.” Following the murder, Turkish authorities announced the “we aren’t ruling out the possibility that a third party directly targeted him.” In June 2016, Turkish authorities claimed that a captured militant witnessed PKK militants Uğur Yakışır and Mahsum Gürkhan open fire upon Tahir Elçi the moment he was killed. But in 2019, Forensic Architecture conducted an independent investigation on behalf of the Diyarbakır Bar Association and analyzed the killing. They concluded that the likely fatal shot probably came from police officers involved in the shootout and not from the escaping PKK militants. The investigation did not conclude whether the shot that killed Elçi was deliberate.
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We are delighted to deliver you a report from our webinar on “Mediation: an effective tool for commercial and family disputes Singapore Convention” that took place on January 28 this year. This successful event gathered speakers and participants from more than 15 countries.Lots of questions raised during the event, very positive feedback sent after the webinar showed us how much such events are needed in time of limited access to justice. Raising cross-border dispute resolution cases makes Singapore Convention on Mediation a very important tool for global universe of trade and commercial relations, it allows the parties to easily enforce the terms of the settlement agreements reached as a result of mediation in different jurisdictions.
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Cracow Bar Association is inviting for a free webinar on European Arrest Warrant that is taking place on Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 18.00 on Zoom. Cracow Bar Association is organizing an international on-line conference on the European coo…
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One of the biggest legal events took place on 12.02.2021 – European Presidents Conference. For almost 50 years leaders of European Bars, Law Societies and international organisations of lawyers have been gathering in the beautiful city of Vienna to discuss crucial issues for justice and legal profession. It is the biggest European meeting of leaders of the profession organised traditionally by the Federal Austrian Bar. In 2018 our President Maria Ślązak was one of main speakers delivering presentation on “Self-regulation or heteronomy – lawyers’ independence in danger?”. This year’s conference is devoted to “Rule of law and democracy – closing the gap between policy and practice” with keynote speaker Shirin Ebadi – Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2003)….
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Dear Colleagues and Friends, The Council of Europe is looking for providers of international consultancy services in the following areas: independence of the judiciary; internal organisation of the judiciary, and the functioning of judicial self-governance bodies; implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 6) by national justice systems and courts; support to the reforms of the bar and systems of legal representation in courts. You may find all information and details here. We invite interested AEA-EAL members to check the info and participate in the tender.
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The Opening of the Legal Year organized each January is a very long tradition of Hong Kong Law Society In the past it always was a huge ceremony gathering judicial and governmental officials, representatives of legal profession as well as distinguished guests from abroad.
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Dear Friends, We are delighted to invite you for our first event in this year – Mediation – an Effective Tool for Commercial and Family Disputes, Singapoore Convention, which will take place on January 28, 2021 on Zoom platform. This very practical event is free for all participants. Our speakers are experienced legal practitioners – mediators representing various countries and areas of practice. Please read the below information, program/ agenda and register on aea-eal.eu !
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Dear Friends, Please find below the latest version of the AEA-EAL Newsletter which will update you on our recent activities and articles. Your AEA-EAL Team Winter Newsletter AEA-EAL
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Dear Friends, Year 2020 is about to end. Twelve months different than any other ones, faced by our generation, marked with the Covid-19 pandemic and affecting our professional and private life in all aspects. The activity of the AEA-EAL has changed with moving our events and other actions into virtual reality. For the first time our General Assembly was organized in hybrid form, and participants of the 2nd Twinning of Lawyers met online. All our conferences and events moved to virtual space, which gave us new opportunities but also limited personal contacts and mutual interactions between colleagues from various countries…
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