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Home Events The Role of Defence Lawyers in Death Penalty Cases: Side Event at the 52nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Events

The Role of Defence Lawyers in Death Penalty Cases: Side Event at the 52nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council

When

28 February 2023, 13:00 - 14:00

Where

Palais des Nations, Room XXIV, Geneva, Switzerland, and online (Zoom, CET time zone)

Organized by

The Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations in Geneva, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), co-sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva of Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, the Republic of Benin and Switzerland

In partnership with IBAHRI and the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations in Geneva, ODIHR organizes a side event on the role of defence lawyers in death penalty cases at the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. The side event will provide an opportunity to draw attention to the unique role of defence lawyers in death penalty cases at the HRC, drawing on ODIHR’s 2022 Background Paper on the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area, which includes a thematic chapter on the role of lawyers in death penalty cases produced with the support of IBAHRI.

The side event shall provide a platform for States, UN bodies and mechanisms, international and national civil society organizations and interested experts to: 

  • Raise awareness about the unique professional and personal challenges faced by defence lawyers working on capital punishment cases, drawing on ODIHR’s 2022 Death Penalty Background Paper;
  • Discuss how national and international stakeholders can better support defence lawyers working on death penalty cases;
  • Complement the discussions of a high-level panel of experts on the question of the death penalty, with a specific focus on the key role played by defence lawyers;
  • Contribute concrete inputs to inform the next HRC Resolution on the Question of the Death Penalty. 

Programme

The side event will take place on 28 February 2023 from 13:00 to 14:00 in room XXIV at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Please click here to take part online.

Speakers

  • Andrea Huber (Moderator), Head of Human Rights Department, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights 
  • Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, Director, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute  
  • Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers 
  • Robin Maher, Lawyer and Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School 
  • Shreya Rastogi (TBC), Director of Death Penalty Litigation and Forensics, Project 39A, National Law University, Delhi 
  • Teppei Ono, Defence lawyer, Central Board on Abolition of the Death Penalty, Japan Federation of Bar Associations 
  • Véronique Joosten, Human Rights Director, Human Rights Department, Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation 

The event will be held in English.