The European Bars Federation and the Ordre National des Avocats de Tunisie in their meeting of the the Mediterranean Assises, held in Hammamet on 29-30 March 2019,

Have unanimously adopted the following resolution

The European Bars Federation and the Ordre National des Avocats de Tunis want to:

• Express their maximum solidarity with the lawyer Nasrín Sotoudeh,
winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience of the European Parliament in 2012, who has assumed the defence of notorious personalities such as the Nobel Prize of Peace 2013 Shirín Ebadí or of the opponents arrested during the protests of the Green Movement of 2009.

• Recognise the work of people or institutions that have stood out for their merits or relevant services in favour of the rule of law and human rights protection.

• Express their deep concern about the situation of human rights defenders and lawyers in Iran, who are frequently subjected to arbitrary detention and other forms of harassment, as well as the growing social exclusion of the Iranian Bar Association, to the detriment of legal assistance and a fair trial.

• Urge to all States to comply with the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, adopted at the Eight United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held in Havana (Cuba) on August/September 1990, asking for an effective protection for all lawyers, permitting them to continue with their legitimate and peaceful activities
in defence of human rights without fear of intimidation, harassment, reprisals and the loss of their own lives.

• Express their firm commitment to support all those initiatives promoted in any country in the world for the protection and safeguarding of the exercise of the right of defence that corresponds to lawyers in a State governed by the rule of law, guarantee of the rights and freedom of citizens.