Important to protect human rights

Several lawyers reportedly recently staged a sit in at the Jordan Bar Association to protest the proliferation of legal aid centres that offer legal assistance to people who cannot afford to pay lawyer fees.

The protesting lawyers claimed that such free legal aid centres violate the principles and regulations of their association, which limit the legal practice to lawyers duly accredited by the association.

The bar association agrees with the protesting lawyers and issued a communiqué threatening legal action against the legal aid centres.

It so happens, however, that most countries with high human rights profile have free legal aid institutions that offer their services to people too poor to afford hiring lawyers to either give them advice on their legal rights or to file suits on their behalf before national courts of law with a view to obtaining legal redress.

The notion of free legal aid is clearly defensible, as international human rights treaty bodies have developed clear jurisprudence calling on states to promote and support the establishment of such free legal support mechanisms as effective complementary instruments that promote and protect human rights.

By and large, free legal institutions deal with human rights issues that might go unaddressed if people who believe they are deprived of rights cannot afford to bring suits to reclaim a right of civic or political nature.

The bar association may have reacted too hastily against human rights defenders, and in the process leaving victims prey to their abusers.