In February 2011 Guangcheng had published a video to share his and his family’s living conditions with the world. This video can be watched on the  L4L YouTube channel. In response to the publication of this video, he and his wife were severely beaten.

Guangcheng and his family have not been allowed to leave home since his release, even to buy food. Mr Chen Guangcheng is kept a prisoner in his own home and suffers from intimidation and interference. L4L is now organizing a letter writing campaign to keep the attention on Guangcheng and keep the pressure on the Chinese authorities high to discontinue the house arrest of Guangcheng and his family.

Other organizations also have given renewed attention to the continued house arrest of Guangcheng. Front Line Defenders made a video on the situation of Guangcheng. Click here to view this video.

The day is organized to protest against the arrest of 47 lawyers in Turkey on 22 November 2011. L4L organized a letter writing campaign for these lawyers.

The 24^th of January was chosen in memory of January 24, 1977, when the Massacre of Atocha in Madrid took place.

Please click here for the official press release.

According to our information, these lawyers have had their licenses revoked in judicial hearings that were held in private, without proper representation, and without adherence to the required procedures of the Bar Council Act, the Legal Practitioners Act and the Courts Manual. It is also reported that the revocations of these lawyers’ licenses were motivated not by any breaches of professional codes of conduct, but by the lawyers’ political activities, their representation of clients accused in political cases, or by convictions on these latter two factors.

Because the revoking of the licenses of the lawyers is not compatible with the international standards that Myanmar is bound to, L4L and LRWC remind the Supreme Court of its international obligations under, among others, the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

Please click here to see the letter that was sent. In our Database on Basic Principles several documents can be found on the Criminal Justice system in Myanmar. Click here for the Database.

Ni Yulan worked for 18 years as a lawyer on politically sensitive cases, but the past few years she has focused mostly on people losing their homes because of the Olympic Games in 2008. After filming the demolition of one of those homes, she was arrested, and her feet and kneecaps broken. Since then she has been confined to a wheelchair. Because of her protest against the beatings, she was sentenced to one year in prison. Also, because of the criminal prosecution, her license as a lawyer was revoked.

Ni Yulan was put in prison several times due to her ongoing challenging the illegal expropriation and demolition of homes, including her own house. Despite all this, she continues to play an important role for human rights activism in China: she is in contact with many human rights lawyers and activists and publishes on threats against them.

On 7 April 2011, Ni Yulan was arrested for the third time, together with her husband Dong Jiqin. Ni Yulan and her husband are in great danger of being physically beaten again. For “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, the offences they are officially charged with, they can receive a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment under Article 293 of the Chinese Criminal Code.

The ‘Human Rights Tulip’ was only awarded on 21 December. Normally the price is awarded on the 10th of December, the International Human Rights day.

Click here to see the submission that was send.

Nasraoui, now 58 years old, is one of Tunisia’s best-known lawyers. She has worked tirelessly for human rights in her country for more than thirty years, defending victims of torture and state violence. She is the founder of the Association de Lutte contre la Torture en Tunisie (Association to Combat Torture in Tunisia, or ALTT, founded in 2003).

Radhia Nasraoui and her family have been victim of government repression and constant observation for decades. In response to the authorities preventing her from practicing as a lawyer, she has gone on hunger strike on several occasions. Despite being attacked and brutally beaten by the police, nothing has prevented her from continuing the struggle for human rights.

Together with her colleagues at the ALTT, Radhia Nasraoui has contributed greatly to the success of the Arab Spring and to defending human rights.

Lawyers for Lawyers in collaboration with De Brauw organized an event that is dedicated to this important UN document. The role and substance of the Basic Principles were discussed and Hay Pahaniaila and  Aleh Volchak discussed their experiences practicing law in Belarus.

Also, two Lawyers for Lawyers initiatives with respect to the promotion of the Basic Principles were launched:

The book “Building on Basic Principles” was presented. This book, published by NJCM (the Dutch branch of the International Commission of Jurists), is the result of the Lawyers for Lawyers’ 25th anniversary Expert Meeting on the Basic Principles. First copies of the book were presented to Germ Kemper, Dean of the Amsterdam Bar Association, Dolf Segaar, member of the Board of CMS Derks Star Busmann, and Marina Brilman of De Brauw.

The newly developed Basic Principles database, integrated in the Lawyers for Lawyers website was demonstrated. This is an advocacy-tool, developed by a team of lawyers of De Brauw, that makes a wealth of information on the Basic Principles accessible to lawyers and others worldwide.

Zeitouneh has risked her life in breaking through the government’s media blackout to report on the brutal crackdown in Syria. For this she was honored by receiving the Anna Politkovskaja Award, in remembrance of the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaja.

Zeitouneh founded the Syrian Human Rights Information Link (SHRIL). Since the beginning of the revolt in Syria in March 2011, Zeitouneh tried to spread information on the human rights violations committed by the Syrian Government. The SHRIL has been one of the few sources of information on killings and arrests committed during the assault on anti-government protesters. Zeitouneh continues to speak to international media about the situation in Syria, even though she has been in hiding for 6 months already.

Mariana Katzarova, founder of the NGO Reach All Women in War (RAW in War), said the 34-year-old Zeitouneh reminds her strongly of Politkovskaya. “When the violence against civilians by the army and security forces in Syria began, Zeitouneh turned into a journalist. She became one of the essential voices coming out of Syria about the daily torture and killing of peaceful protesters in the country,” Katzarova said.

Besides the Anna Politkovskaja Award, Razan Seitouneh was also awarded with the Sacharov price by the European Parlement. This price will be handed out in December 2011.