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NYCBAR sends letter to President of Rwanda re Prof. Peter Erlinder |
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Blogs -
General
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Written by Elise Colomer
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Monday, 28 June 2010 |
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City Bar President Samuel W. Seymour, with the Committee on International Human Rights and the Committee on African Affairs, sent a letter to the President of Rwanda urging the immediate and unconditional release of Professor Peter Erlinder, an American lawyer who traveled to Rwanda in May to represent an opposition presidential candidate accused of denying and minimizing the 1994 genocide in violation of Rwanda’s 2008 Genocide Ideology law. The letter states, “Beyond its personal impacts on Professor Erlinder, the Rwandan Government’s actions contravene the United Nations’ Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which were adopted to provide specific substance to the due process guarantees recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights….Under Article 18 of the Basic Principles, ‘Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.’” Professor Erlinder has now been released but is still facing charges in Rwanda. |
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