Right to Counsel: The Independence of Lawyers in Myanmar

Lawyers continue to encounter impediments to the exercise of their professional functions and freedom of association, as well as pervasive corruption, although they have been able to act with greater independence, says the ICJ in a new report launched today.

Right to Counsel: The Independence of Lawyers in Myanmar – based on interviews with 60 lawyers in practice in the country – says authorities have significantly decreased their obstruction of, and interference in, legal processes since the country began political reforms in 2011 […]

Lawyers Still Face Restrictions Despite Increased Independence

Lawyers continue to encounter impediments to the exercise of their professional functions and freedom of association, as well as pervasive corruption, although they have been able to act with greater independence, says the ICJ in a new report launched today […]

BURMA: Prominent Rights Lawyer’s Licence Reissued

A prominent human rights lawyer who had lost his licence for political reasons among 32 on whose behalf the Asian Human Rights Commission has been campaigning for three years has been informed that he can now again practice law […]

Rangoon Lawyers Take to the Streets – Again

Some 200 lawyers held a demonstration along Maha Bandula Road in Rangoon on Wednesday morning to protest the lack of government response to their previous calls to resist the sale of the city’s 101-year-old High Court and the Police Commissioner Office to a consortium of local and Chinese businessmen […]

Burma: Lawyer Who Returned Believing Situation Changed Jailed

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the President of Myanmar/Burma

Dear President

We regret to learn that a lawyer who returned to Myanmar from exile abroad at your behest has been imprisoned on the unjust charges from which he fled in the first place. We urge that the conviction imposed on him be quashed and that he be released from prison immediately […]

Burma: Overturn 6 Month Sentence of Human Rights Defender and Lawyer Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min

AAPP is calling on the U Thein Sein administration in Burma to overturn the 6 month sentence of Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min: a human rights defender, lawyer for political prisoners, and former leading member of the National League for Democracy – Youth (NLD-Youth) […]

Burma: Rights Lawyer’s Passport Confiscated, AHRC Writes to Govt

The Asian Human Rights Commission on Thursday wrote to the government of Burma calling for a human rights lawyer to have his confiscated passport returned.

In a letter to home affairs minister U Hla Min, the AHRC executive director Wong Kai Shing said that U Aung Thein had had his license confiscated at the airport on return from a meeting in Hong Kong at the end of July […]

Burma: Human Rights Lawyer Gets Licence Back

A lawyer who had lost his licence for political reasons among 32 on whose behalf the Asian Human Rights Commission has been campaigning since last year has been informed that he can now again practice law.

In a letter dated July 9, the Supreme Court informed U Robert Sann Aung that it had decided to allow him to practice again, after almost 20 years of disbarment […]

Bar Councils Exhorted to Support Burmese Lawyers

The Asian Legal Resource Centre on Friday issued an appeal to bar councils worldwide to support lawyers in Burma who have had their licences revoked for political reasons […]