Posts Tagged ‘Law Society’

Battered Lawyer Wins Zimbabwe Law Society Award

November 18, 2014

Kennedy Masiye

RadioVop in Zimbabwe reported on 14 November 2014 that Kennedy Masiye, a human rights lawyer who was brutally assaulted by the police recently, has been honoured by the Law Society of  Zimbabwe (LSZ) for his outstanding contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights in the country.

Masiye, a senior project lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) was named as the human rights lawyer of the year 2014 at the LSZ’s Summer School held in Nyanga last week. Masiye could not attend the award ceremony as he was detained in hospital (see picture above) recovering from acts of police brutality meted on him while in the course of discharging his professional duties.

[The LSZ’s human rights award is sponsored by Scanlen and Holderness Legal Practitioners and targets junior to mid-career lawyers under 35 years of age]

Masiye has represented and secured acquittals for several human rights defenders in the country including some former farm workers and villagers facing eviction from their living quarters.

“I am humbled by the award. At least the work that I am doing as a human rights lawyer is being recognised by the legal fraternity. ZLHR has enabled me to explore my potential in the human rights field. The award is an icing on the cake given the work that we have being doing at ZLHR,” said Masiye.

RadioVop Zimbabwe – Battered Lawyer Wins Zim Law Society Award.

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Independence of lawyers threatened in Bahrain

December 19, 2011

Only a few days ago, 12 December, I reported on a new database on the Independence of Lawyers launched by Lawyers for Lawyers. And here Bahrain comes with a great illustration of the need to strengthen this concept. On December 18, 2011 the Bahrain Center for Human Rights explains how the Ministry of Human Rights [SIC!] and Social development on 7 December overruled the recent election of the Board of the Bahrain Lawyers Society  and reappointed the old one. This step appears to have been taken because most the elected members are seen to be from the ‘opposition’. Whatever the truth in this charge, the election seems to have been fully legal and representing the will of the majority of the members.

Fatima Al-Blooshi, minister of human rights and social development, is clearly acting as a government stooge and basing herself on a law written in 1989 for the purpose of controlling the activities of the institutions of civil society, known as the law of Societies. This law has been repeatedly criticized by local and international organizations for violating freedom of assembly. The report of the Bahrain Centre of Human Rights gives many details of how this law was abused in the past including its own dissolution in 2004.

for details see: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/4910

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