The IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers reported on July 10 on the continued detention of Erias Lukwago, a prominent lawyer, human rights defender, and opposition figure arrested on June 15 by armed security operatives while acting as legal counsel for opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Lukwago was charged with “misprision of treason,” an offense …
Marking the eleventh anniversary of the July 2015 “709 Crackdown” on rights lawyers, Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported this week on a draft amendment to China’s Lawyers Law, published by the National People’s Congress on June 26, that would require lawyers to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China” and its “socialist rule …
In a July 8, 2026 PBS NewsHour interview with Ali Rogin, Judge Holly D’Andrea — a Texas immigration judge since 2019 and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges — described low morale on the bench as roughly 200 judges have been fired, resigned, or retired, shifting an estimated 700 cases each onto remaining …
The IAPL Monitoring Committee reported on July 10 that human rights defenders and lawyers Nazanin Salari, Mahmoud Taravat-Roy, and Massoud Ahmadian face imminent arrest and detention in Iran. On June 8, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz had sentenced the three to a combined three years’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion …
Human Rights Watch published a July 8 analysis warning that, five years after President Kais Saied seized extraordinary executive powers, Tunisia’s systematic repression now centrally targets the legal profession and judiciary. Saied dismantled the independent High Judicial Council in 2022 and replaced it with a body under executive control, granting himself powers to dismiss judges. …
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 91-year-old precedent (Humphrey’s Executor) that had barred presidents from firing members of independent federal agencies without cause. The ruling upheld President Trump’s 2025 dismissal of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, effectively turning FTC commissioners into at-will employees who serve at the president’s discretion. Writing …
UN human rights experts have called on Peru to halt disciplinary proceedings against judges who applied international human rights law in cases involving serious abuses. In a statement issued from Geneva on June 26, 2026, the experts warned that punishing judges for upholding international law undermines judicial independence and sets back victims’ access to justice. …
The Stockholm Center for Freedom reports that two international legal organizations—Lawyers for Lawyers and the Law Society of England and Wales—have called on Turkish authorities to release three attorneys detained ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. In a joint statement, the groups said the detention of Semra Demir, Kürşat Bafra, and Doğa İncesu appeared …
Human Rights Watch reports that Turkish police arrested at least 209 people in Ankara in overnight raids on June 22–23, 2026, ahead of the NATO summit scheduled there for July 7–8. Those detained included political activists, lawyers, an academic, and a journalist known as a prominent LGBT rights advocate. Authorities cited efforts to counter “terrorist …
Dozens of prominent Israelis — including two former prime ministers (Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak), former heads of the country’s security services, retired judges, a Nobel laureate, and leading cultural figures — have threatened legal action against the Israeli government over what they describe as state-enabled “Jewish terrorism” in the occupied West Bank, according to …