Sense of Congress on protecting lawyers and promoting fair trials

It is the sense of Congress that— (1) the Government of Turkey must— (A) halt its indiscriminate detention and prosecution of lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and court officials, and its targeting of lawyers’ associations; (B) repeal laws restricting the right of lawyers to discharge their professional duties, the rights of suspects to legal counsel, and the right of lawyer-client privileged communication; (C) ensure that lawyers can visit detainees in police custody, and remind police and prosecutors of the protected role of lawyers under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers; and (D) end the practice of prosecuting lawyers based on whom they have represented as clients; (2) the Department of State should pressure the Government of Turkey— (A) to abolish extended pretrial detention, consistent with Turkey’s Judicial Reform Strategy; (B) to reverse the April 2017 amendment to Article 159 of the Constitution of Turkey, which allows for political control over the nomination procedures to the Council of Judges and Prosecutors; and (C) to ensure the independence of judges and of the judiciary system, with particular focus on the Ministry of Justice; and (3) the independence of any country’s judicial system suffers when lawyers— (A) are subject to intimidation and harassment in their work; and (B) are identified with the causes of their clients.