INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ATHENS ON THE SUBJECT OF DEFENDERS & EUROPEAN LAWYERS DAY. A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ATHENS BAR ASSOCIATION

HUMAN RIGHTS DEENDERS SUPPORT NETWORK

25 October, 2018 / For Immediate Release

“Why Lawyers matter: Defending the defenders of the Rule of Law”

25/10: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ATHENS ON THE SUBJECT OF DEFENDERS & EUROPEAN LAWYERS DAY. A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ATHENS BAR ASSOCIATION

Today, 25/10, on the Athens Bar Association's (ABA’s) site an invitation of the Maragopoulou Institution was announced to an event on Human Rights in memory of its late Chairwoman (scheduled for 30/10), an invitation to the 11th Annual International Transparency Conference of Greece (for 7/12) and an event taking place TODAY (25/10) for “European Lawyers Day” adopted this year by the Council of European Bar Associations (CCBE) on the subject of “The value of Lawyers – Defending the defenders of the Rule of Law”, and also the “European Day of Justice 2018”.

In the context of this excellent opportunity to honour Lawyers as Defenders and to exercise pressures towards them being respected and adequately protected, highlighting the challenges they face and exploring measures to be taken in their support, and while, simultaneously, over 100 key personalities for human rights from all over Europe are attending a conference in Athens today and divulging in a working group on how defenders can be defended effectively on an EU level and how their work can be recognized, we find out on the same day of the event (!) that this event is taking place at the Athens Bar Association with the topic: "The Attorney as a Defender of the Rule of Law and a Factor of Conformity".

The event, as it was organized, seems to defy the very serious challenges posed to Lawyers - Human Rights Defenders, and also hard to say it is in line with the "topic" set by the CCBE this year, in a critical year on safeguarding the rights of Lawyers at an EU level and while in the process of seeking a European Convention for the Legal Profession.

We call on the Athens Bar Association from whose offices Pleiades announced, at a press conference in November 2017, a Model Law for Human Rights Defenders and special provisions for lawyers, and in the context of the ever-increasing violation of lawyers' rights due to their advocacy actions, to take on the issue of Defending the Defenders most heatedly and, in general, to ensure that they work takes place in a framework that is safe for them, free from intimidation, retaliation, threat, administrative and judicial harassment.

The DYYAD has proposed the establishment of an Athens Bar Association's Committee on the subject and a team specializing in the protection of defenders who are victimized due to the exercise of their function.

The DYYAD considers that the deviation from the CCBE's topic and the relevant "missed opportunity" to highlight the issue, as well as in view of the international attention given on the same subject by other institutions (the national human rights bodies of 40 countries!) who find themselves today in Athens, in a conference forming round tables and working groups on the protection of human rights defenders, has overwhelming significance and calls for making up for today’s absence of sufficient importance to the issue of advocating and shielding the Defenders with a series of Athens Bar Association actions toward the above direction and logic.

Unlike the normal ABA practices, the program of the event, which almost nobody knew was taking place, was announced online on the very day of the event, as follows:

• Maria Gavouneli, Lawyer, Deputy Professor of Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, “The new EU Draft Directive on Public Interest Testifiers (Whistleblowing)”

• Nikolaos Koutkias, Lawyer, ABA Board Member, ABA Representative at CCBE, “The Lawyer and suppressing and combating the legalization of illegal proceeds”

• Andreas Koutsolambros, Lawyer, ABA Board Member, Chairman of the Paid Employees Union, "The Public Sector Lawyer and the Principle of Legality"

• Argiris Ikonomou, Lawyer, Legal Advisor for the Public Power Corporation, “The Attorney as an agent in shaping the culture of compliance in businesses and organizations"

• Georgios Stefanakis, Lawyer, “Defending the defenders”

The event is coordinated by Panayiotis Perakis, Lawyer, ABA Board Member, CCBE Access to Justice Committee Chairman

The greeting is addressed by Panos Alexandris, head of the Greek CCBE Delegation

The event speaker is Dimitris K. Vervesos, Chairman of the Athens Bar Association