A new OHCHR dataset, Human Rights Count 2026, reported by UN News on June 17, 2026, finds that attacks on human rights defenders—a category that includes lawyers and other legal advocates—reached record levels over the past year. Preliminary data indicate that roughly 950 human rights defenders, journalists, and trade unionists were killed or forcibly disappeared …
The Malaysian Bar has welcomed the government’s move to separate the offices of the Attorney General and Public Prosecutor—a long-standing institutional reform aimed at strengthening the rule of law and prosecutorial independence—but cautioned that the proposed constitutional amendments may fall short without stronger safeguards and supporting legislation. Bar President Anand Raj stressed that the powerful …
Thirty-nine international legal and human rights organizations—including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists—issued a joint statement on June 5, 2026, condemning what they describe as the Tunisian authorities’ systematic and escalating campaign of intimidation, prosecution, and retaliation against lawyers, judges, and independent civil society, a pattern that has deepened since …
Israel’s two most senior judicial officials—Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara—issued stark warnings on June 1, 2026, accusing the governing coalition of deliberately working to dismantle Israeli democracy through its assault on the judiciary. Speaking at an Israel Bar Association conference, Amit, who has been boycotted by the government since his …
On June 2, 2026, the International Mission of Jurists for Guatemala will present its report “Climate of Fear: The Legal Profession and Judicial Independence at Risk” in Madrid, based on a fact-finding mission carried out in October 2025. The mission—a joint initiative of the International Observatory for Lawyers at Risk (OIAD), Lawyers for Lawyers, AJUFIDH, …
Slate interviews federal judges who describe an unprecedented climate of intimidation, doxing, swatting, and impeachment threats against members of the bench. The reporting highlights statements by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche calling for “war” with the judiciary, the Attorney General’s public attacks on judges who rule against the administration, and congressional calls to impeach at …
The Kathmandu Post’s May 14 opinion column reviews the cumulative damage that the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments — pushed through Pakistan’s parliament by political and military elites — have done to judicial independence. The piece details how the amendments empower a Special Parliamentary Committee to choose the Chief Justice, create a new Federal Constitutional …
CNN reports that federal judges in Rhode Island took the unusual step of appointing a special counsel to investigate alleged misconduct by a senior Justice Department attorney in an immigration case. The piece situates the appointment within a broader pattern: judges in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C., have tried to hold the Trump Justice Department …
Broadcast on May 1, 2026, this WXXI public-radio program convenes retired federal and state judges to assess the state of judicial independence in the United States as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. Participants distinguish between ordinary public criticism of judicial decisions, which they characterize as constitutionally healthy, and a newer phenomenon in which sitting …
Reporting on the recently enacted Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment (May 1, 2026), the article details how Pakistan’s parliament has restructured the judiciary in ways that the International Commission of Jurists has called “a flagrant attack on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.” The amendment creates a new Federal Constitutional Court whose members …