The UNBA Representatives visited the Latvian Collegium of Sworn Advocates

On July 16, 2018, the UNBA representatives met with the management of the Latvian Collegium of Sworn Advocates. The UNBA was represented by the Secretary of the Committee on Protection of Advocates’ Professional Rights and Guarantees at UNBA Yurii Grygorenko and the member of the Committee on Protection of Advocates’ Professional Rights and Guarantees at UNBA, the member of the Higher Audit Commission of the Bar Bogdan Yegorov.

The Latvian Bar was represented by the President of the Association Janis Rozenbergs and Vice-President Guna Kaminska. 

During the meeting they talked about general problems of the Bar of two States, challenges faced concerning the independence of the advocate community.

This meeting was jointly organized by the Committee on Protection of Advocates’ Professional Rights and Guarantees and the Committee on International Relations at UNBA, with the assistance of the UNBA/BCU President Lidiia Izovitova.

The Representatives of the Latvian Bar told about attempts of the state authorities of Latvia to acknowledge officials of the bar self-government as civil servants, to equate them to civil servants and to require them to submit annually the property status declaration. This state of affairs, according to the Latvian colleagues, is an interference in the bar self-government.

In addition, they told about the cases of tapping by the prosecution authorities of private communications between the advocate and his client in the offices of the pretrial detention facility. Due to the interference of the Association the Prosecutor General of Latvia has personally recognized the given evidence inadmissible.

In its turn, the Ukrainian side reported cases of murder of advocates, destruction of their property as well as impact on their legal position by means of criminal prosecution in connection with their professional activities. In addition, there were mentioned attempts of changes in the Ukrainian legislation  on the Bar without involving the advocate community in their discussion.

The participants of the meeting recognized the cases mentioned  as intolerable and inadmissible.

The representatives of the Latvian Bar expressed their unconditional support for the advocate community of Ukraine as regards the protection of professional rights and guarantees in international institutions such as the PACE, European Parliament, UN. 

The members of the Committee on Protection of Advocates’ Professional Rights and Guarantees at UNBA invited the management of the Latvian Bar to pay a counter visit to Kyiv, as well as to unite efforts to create an international mechanism for the protection of advocates' rights and guarantees of independence of the legal profession.