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Council of Europe Convention on the Profession of the Profession of Lawyer:
A guarantee for the proper administration of justice and the respect of the Rule of Law


Read the text of the Convention

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List of the signatories

Date Country Number of Signatories    
13.05.2025 Luxembourg 1    
13.05.2025 Andorra 2    
13.05.2025 Estonia 3    
13.05.2025 France 4    
13.05.2025 Greece 5    
13.05.2025 Ireland 6    
13.05.2025 Italy 7    
13.05.2025 Lithuania 8    
13.05.2025 Netherlands 9    
13.05.2025 North Macedonia 10    
13.05.2025 Norway 11    
13.05.2025 Poland 12    
13.05.2025 Sweden 13    
14.05.2025 Belgium 14    
14.05.2025 Iceland 15    
14.05.2025 Republic of Moldova 16    
14.05.2025 United Kingdom 17    
03.07.2025 Bulgaria 18    
         
         
         
         

Joint event on “Protecting lawyers to ensure access to justice”, organised by the CCBE and the Council of Europe, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg.


Friday 27 June 2025

13:00–14:00 CEST

Palais des Nations, Room XXV & Online

Watch the replay of the event on YouTube


Speakers include:

• Margaret Satterthwaite – UN Special Rapporteur UN Special Rapporteur on theIndependence of Judges and LawyersChristoph

• Christoph Henrichs – Council of Europe, Chair of the Committee ofExperts on the Protection of Lawyers (CJ-AV)

• Roman Zavrsek – CCBE First Vice-President

• Sophie de Graaf – Lawyers for Lawyers Executive Director

• Ernstine Kornelis – Deputy Permanent Representative of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to UNOG


Moderator: Mark Stephens – IBAHRI Co-Chair


Co-sponsored by the Permanent Representations to UNOG of Andorra, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Philippines, International Commission of Jurists, Lawyers for Lawyers, American Bar Association, Inter American Bar Association, the Pan African Lawyers Union, and LAWASIA. 


About the Convention

The CCBE supported the Council of Europe’s work on the drafting of a Convention on the profession of lawyer. The purpose of the Convention is to strengthen the Rule of Law and, in so doing, the protection of lawyers whose work is fundamental to the administration of justice and the protection of fundamental rights. Indeed, attacks on the role of lawyers have increased in recent years. Harassment, threats, imprisonment, surveillance, enforced disappearances and murders of lawyers continue to occur in many Council of Europe States, and are even on the rise in some of them. A new instrument is now needed to ensure the effective protection of the profession of lawyer, whose mission is crucial for access to justice and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the rights of the defence and the guarantees of a fair trial.

The CCBE has set up a working group specifically dedicated to this issue.

Webpage of the Committee of Experts on the Protection of Lawyers (CJ-AV) of the Council of Europe




Documents relating to the European Convention on the Profession of Lawyer

  

Council of Europe documents


Documents relating to the Profession of Lawyer in general