Check against delivery - Speech by Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Ambassador Revel, Chair of GR-J,
Commissioner O’Flaherty,

Mr Vladimir Vardanyan, PACE,

Mr Eral Knight, Chair CDCJ,
Excellences,
Colleagues and friends,

René Cassin — the architect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Gisèle Halimi — who stood before colonial courts and reshaped the law for generations of women.
Antonio Cassese — first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Melahat Ruacan — the first woman elected to a supreme court anywhere in the world.
Hersch Lauterpacht — who made human dignity a principle of international law.

These are names etched into our legal history.
You know them. We honour them.
They shaped the foundations of European justice.

***

But what about the lawyers whose names will never appear in textbooks?
The ones pleading in small courtrooms.
Visiting clients in overcrowded detention centres.
Those lawyers working late into the night — with no headlines, no protection, no recognition.

Or those who take on the cases no one else will.
Who represent the voiceless, the hated, the forgotten.
Who, on top of it, are sometimes threatened, harassed, or attacked — not because they fail in their duty, but because they do it too well.

***

Today, we are here for them.

Because from Strasbourg to Ankara, from Lisbon to Lviv — whether their names are famous or not — they are part of the same profession.
The same values.
The same conviction.

***

Just over a month ago, we stood alongside ministers and legal experts in Luxembourg for the opening of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer.

This is the first international treaty of its kind.

And it sends a clear message:

We will not stand by while those who defend rights are themselves attacked.

We will defend those who defend the rule of law.

***

Today, we reconvene here in Strasbourg — not only to celebrate that achievement, but to carry it forward.

Because across our continent, and beyond, lawyers are being threatened.

According to a recent Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) survey, nearly 60% of lawyers reported experiencing threats or aggression in the last two to three years.

And more than a third have considered leaving the profession entirely.

These are not only statistics.

They are real people — women and men defending the rights of others — often becoming targets simply because of the clients they represent, or the causes they take on.

***

This is how democracies begin to fray.
Not in sweeping declarations…
But in the quiet silencing of one profession, one principle, one person at a time.

***

Let us not forget a simple truth:

There can be no justice without lawyers.
And without justice — how can there be democracy?

***

But this Convention is not just about protection.
It is about preserving access to justice, fair trial rights, and the independence of legal systems — the core pillars of any democratic society.

Already, 17 states have signed.

More will follow.
And crucially, the Convention is opened to non-member states — which gives it a global reach.

All of this matters.

Because in doing so, each country is not only defending a profession…

They are defending the right of every person to be heard, to be represented, to be protected by the law.

***

Dear friends,

Antonio Cassese once wrote that lawyers are either intuitive or innovative.

Technicians or investigators.

Or explorers.

I am sure you will have recognised into what category you fall.

But whatever their style, lawyers all serve the same ideal:

To give meaning to justice.

To make rights real.

To protect lawyers is to protect those who protect all of us.

This Convention is our shield for them.
Because through them, they protect the rule of law, and ultimately, our democracies.

Thank you.