For Immediate Release
Nov. 5, 2007
OTTAWA – The Canadian Bar Association is supporting the Canadian government in its condemnation of the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, and is lending its voice to the call for the immediate return to the rule of law.
“We fully endorse our government’s call for an end to emergency rule in Pakistan,” says CBA President Bernard Amyot of Montreal. “We urge the government of Pakistan to return to the rule of law by reinstating the judiciary, releasing arrested lawyers, and guaranteeing respect for human rights.”
News reports indicate that Pakistani lawyers have been arrested. “We cannot stand by without expressing our outrage for these injustices,” says Mr. Amyot. “Lawyers and judges play a key role in protecting the rights of individuals and safeguarding democracy.”
The Provisional Constitution Order issued by the government puts the constitution into abeyance. The chief justice has been removed, safeguards to life and liberty have been curtailed, and those arrested can be denied access to lawyers. No court can challenge the order or rule against the president or prime minister.
The situation in Pakistan, which is evolving by the hour, has raised the concern of Canada’s legal profession and lawyers and judges around the world. “Whenever democratic principles are threatened, the legal profession must speak out on behalf of those whose liberties have been crushed,” says Mr. Amyot.
In 2006, the Canadian Bar Association endorsed a statement of core principles of the legal profession that include an impartial and independent judiciary, without which there is no rule of law; an independent legal profession, without which there is no rule or law or freedom for the people; and access to justice for all people throughout the world, which is only possible with an independent legal profession and an impartial and independent judiciary.
The statement concludes, “These core principles shall not yield to any emergency of the moment.”
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org.
