The United States has been selected as the focus of this year's International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, an annual event highlighting countries where legal professionals face political intimidation. The designation, chosen by a coalition of over 40 bar associations and lawyer organisations globally, places the US alongside previous honorees such as Belarus, Afghanistan, Iran and China.
A report released on Thursday cited the Trump administration's 'sustained and co-ordinated campaign aimed at undermining the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary'. It described a 'troubling pattern of political intimidation and institutional destabilization unprecedented in the modern history of the US'.
Symone Gaasbeek, a co-founder of the coalition, said the decision was based on facts showing 'a systematic attack on the legal profession in the US'. She noted that attacks had intensified over the past year, with the government attempting to control the legal profession and threatening the rule of law.
The UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, has raised concerns about the Trump administration's actions. She sent two official letters objecting to the dismissal of career lawyers from the Department of Justice and attacks on judges who ruled against the administration, including Trump's call for impeachment of a federal judge.
Satterthwaite warned that such verbal assaults could incite violence, pointing to a wave of threats against federal judges, including anonymous pizza deliveries. She said the administration had not replied to her letters.
