The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) grants its 2020 Human Rights Award to seven Egyptian lawyers currently in prison and grants an exceptional posthumous Human Rights Award to Turkish lawyer Ebru Timtik who died in August 2020.
On the weekend of 20 and 21 June 2020, a large number of lawyers and local Turkish Bar Associations presidents launched a symbolic march from their respective provinces to the entrance of Ankara to protest against a new draft bill of the governing party AKP, which is intended to change the electoral system of the chambers and further restrict the independence of the bars and the legal profession.
During the confinement period, numerous cases and proceedings have been cancelled and postponed to the detriment of access to justice and respect of human rights.
