Iranian Lawyers Protest Move To Further Limit Bar Associations

Iranian lawyers have staged demonstrations to protest a recent parliamentary decision to strip the limited independence of the country’s bar associations. 

The rallies were held outside the provincial offices of the bar associations in several provinces this week. Expressing their objections, attorneys at these protests described the measure as "contrary to the fundamental rights of the people and in violation of the independence of the Bar Association.” 

They also urged the Guardian Council – a constitutional 12-member council that wields veto power over legislation passed by the parliament -- to annul the decision. They also called on the heads of the three branches of Iran’s government – administration, judiciary and legislative – to review the newly approved resolution. 

On August 21, lawmakers passed a new bill that compels bar associations to comply with the decisions of the Regulatory Board of the Ministry of Economy, practically turning them into government subsidiaries. The new law also prohibits annulment of the Regulatory Board’s decisions in the Administrative Justice Court. 

The resolution also grants authority to the Ministry of Economy for issuing, extending, and revoking attorney licenses. Outraged over the measure, Iranian lawyers say the move runs contrary to international legal norms and existing regulations. 

The parliament’s resolution also tasks the Economy Ministry to draft new monitoring regulations to assess the performance of lawyers in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary. Another clause of the resolution mandates the ministry to establish a "system for assessing the commitment and effectiveness of lawyers by clients" and publish the "results of each lawyer's assessment by previous clients" to the public. 

The resolution coincided with intensified measures by the regime to discourage possible protests ahead of the anniversary of last year’s nationwide uprising, ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. More than 500 protesters were killed and over 22,000 were arrested during the regime’s crackdown. Although protesters were given harsh sentences and were denied legal representation and due process in most cases, independent lawyers were the only hope of the prisoners, making their voices heard in Iran and abroad. 

Bar associations, as a long-standing professional and legal institution in Iran, has consistently encountered pressures from governmental bodies and the judiciary, gradually losing its autonomy and authority through the enactment of various laws. 

In June 2021, President Ebrahims Raisi introduced another set of regulations to restrict the bar associations in his last weeks as chief justice. In May 2020, over 12,000 legal practitioners in a letter to Raisi protested another set of regulations as "devastating” for bar associations and distorting “the procedures of fair legal investigations." 

After the establishment of the Islamic Republic the existing Bar Association was closed down and many top attorneys were persecuted. In 1997, parliament passed the Law on Conditions for Lawyerhood Licenses, allowing the reopening of bar associations in all provinces with members required to profess belief and “practical commitment" to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism or Christianity. 

Dadban, a group of pro-bono lawyers in Iran defending political prisoners and rights activists, reported Thursday several cases of “increasing pressure on lawyers ahead of the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini's murder and the beginning of the Women, Life, Freedom movement.” It said the intelligence organization of the Judiciary has summoned several lawyers in the past few days and seeks to revoke the licenses of many others. Iran has several parallel intelligence organizations.

In addition to the ongoing protest rallies, an online campaign against the resolution has garnered about 20,000 signatures in less than 48 hours after its launch, calling for amendments to “the new regulations that contradict the principles of the Constitution and Islamic Sharia law.” 

Ali Mandanipour, the former head of the National Union of Iranian Bar Associations – which includes the Central Bar Association (Tehran Bar Association) as well as 15 regional bar associations – issued an open letter to the heads of government branches, calling the new resolution as the final nail in the coffin of bar associations in Iran.