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Calling for a European convention to protect lawyers, PACE has raised concerns that harassment, threats, and attacks against lawyers continue in many Council of Europe Member States.

The case study Resisting Ill Democracies in Europe continues to make an impact in capitals across Europe. Last week, the NGOs publishing it were in Brussels to raise the issue with MEPs and engage the EU in the discussion.

Applications are now open for the position of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

In the past week, human rights in Crimea and the need to support Crimeans have been in focus at the United Nations – in Geneva and in New York.

The UN has set the stage to celebrate the essential role of human rights defenders in 2018, as a resolution highlighting their positive impact is adopted by the General Assembly’s committee working on human rights.

“The reform undertaken by the Government, presented as a cure, appears to be worse than the disease affecting the Polish judiciary” declared the UN expert on the independence of the judiciary, concluding his visit to Poland last week.

For the first time, a non-governmental organisation has arranged a thematic briefing of the Council of Europe’s (CoE’s) decision-making body. Three human rights defenders presented their experiences on the front line promoting human rights.

“If you are the ruling party and you have the absolute majority, you have to stick to the rule of law.”

The country must “put an end to systemic repression of human rights defenders and the media,” according to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).