Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada has joined The Law Society of England and Wales, Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L), the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), and the Asian Lawyers Network (ALN) in a report to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council dated 1 September 2026 demonstrating that China has failed to deliver on its human rights commitments to protect lawyers. The report provides case studies showing that the rule of law, rights and role of lawyers remain under threat in China and Hong Kong SAR, andconcludes that the recommendations supported by China during the Fourth Cycle of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) have not been adequately implemented more than two years on.
The joint report concludes that:
China persistently undermines the rule of law, fails to protect fair trial rights and access to justice, and continues to subject lawyers to harassment, surveillance, arbitrary prosecutions, unfair trials, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, travel bans, incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance, forced exile, transnational repression, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, simply for doing their job. These practices violate international human rights laws and standards and international protections for the role of lawyers such as freedom of expression and assembly, the freedom to practice law free from harassment, intimidation or interference law without intimidation, the right to a fair trial, and freedom from torture.
See the full report and recommendations (pdf).
