The yearly International Bar Association Conference took place from 18-23 September 2016 in Washington DC. Some of the most notable highlights from the event have been included in this summary, extracted from the September edition of the IBA newsletter.
The IBA’s Presidential Task Force Against Human Trafficking launched its report at the conference. The focus of the report is the relationship between trafficking and corruption.
Human-trafficking-and-public-corruption-2016-FULL
The IBA launched its report entitled Children and Access to Justice: National Practices, International Challenges. This report was compiled by The Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the IBA Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee. The report identifies obstacles that impact on both the availability and effectiveness of access to justice for children. It also looks at law and practice in individual countries with a view to understanding national issues in the context of global challenges.
Children-and-Access-to-Justice-DRAFT-OCTOBER16
The following link contains an article, from the September issue of the online publication: Business Law International, which has arisen out of a successful session conducted at the IBA conference. This article examines bank confidentiality rules in six jurisdictions where financial services and deposits play a vital part in their respective economies: England, the USA, Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Switzerland.
http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=3e098647-c735-42c3-9c32-56b17f420546
The IBA Conference oversaw the presentation of a number of awards. Russian media lawyer, Galina Arapova received the IBA Human Rights Award 2016. For more than 20 years, Galina has been working hard for both freedom of expression and information. She is the director, and a senior media lawyer, at the Mass Media Defence Centre, the only Russian NGO giving advice to journalists from her home country. Galina has defended local, regional, national and even international newspapers (including the New York Times), regional TV stations and online publications.
To read more about Galina’s work, click below:
http://www.ibanet.org/Article/NewDetail.aspx?ArticleUid=1edffa40-5049-4ebb-8492-d543a6575b55
Odette Geldenhuys was the recipient of this year’s Pro Bono Award. Not only was Odette the first director of access to justice at Legal Aid South Africa, but she is also the founder of probono.org.za, the first pro bono clearing house within the country. The firm has been created to offer help to marginalised and underprivileged South Africans as their country previously had no pro bono culture. As part of this, Geldenhuys has set up the first housing cooperation, the Seven Buildings Project, as a way of securing black property ownership.
This year the title of IBA Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year was given to Remy Choo Zheng Xi. Colleagues described him as an example of how ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good’ do not have to be mutually exclusive. According to the judge’s Remy has stood out due to his work in Singapore within the very ‘unpopular and challenging area of human rights litigation, being an advocate for free speech and leading significant public interest cases’.
The winner of this year’s prize draw to win free entry to the Annual Conference in Washington was Mukesh Dhungana of Nepal. He attended the event, alongside more than 6,000 delegates, for the chance to network with lawyers from across the globe.
Finally, the President of the IBA, David W Rivkin, wrote an exclusive message sharing his own thoughts on the conference. His message can be read by accessing the link below:
http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=ba123747-8a79-470e-b36d-3a37055c7a66
Click on the following links to watch highlighted video coverage and view photographs from the event itself:
Video Footage
http://www.ibanet.org/Conferences/washington-films.aspx
Photo Gallery
http://www.ibanet.org/Conferences/washington-oc-gallery.aspx
For the remainder of 2016, the IBA is offering 15 months’ membership for the same price as an annual membership. To benefit from this offer, simply join the IBA online.
http://www.ibanet.org/Join_the_IBA/Why_join_the_IBA.aspx
Image source: www.martindale.com