Michael S. Greco
Past President, American Bar Association
Remarks at ABA International Distinguished Guests Program:
“Human Rights and the Role of the Lawyer in Society”
Fairmont Royal York Hotel
Toronto, Canada
August 6, 2011
It is a great pleasure for me to address this distinguished audience of international
bar leaders, especially when I see so many old friends with whom I collaborated during my
year as President of the American Bar Association. Many of you extended warm
hospitality and courtesies when I traveled to your country, for which I remain grateful.
And born in Italy during World War II of an Italian father and American mother, and
therefore of European origin, I feel a strong kinship with each of you in this room.
As President of the American Bar Association and now as Chair of the ABA Center
for Human Rights I have been privileged to lead the world's largest, 400,000 member, legal
organization in its defense and advancement of bedrock principles that underlie a just rule
of law.
Those principles universally are understood to include (1) the human rights to
life, liberty and freedom of thought and expression; (2) the right to a fair system of justice;
and (3) the right to a standard of living that reflects and respects the human dignity that all
people share in equal measure.
At the heart of a just rule of law is the self-evident truth, clearly set forth in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that "All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights." Any lingering doubt about this truth should have been dispelled
by the recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, where one young man -- his
human dignity assaulted one time too many – fought to reclaim it in a most extreme and
poignant form of protest. In so doing, he sparked revolution across the region: young men
and women have recognized themselves in his personal plight, and they have vowed not to
"take it" any longer – not to accept violations of their human rights -- no matter what
oppressive forces may be used against them.
This ongoing struggle proves again the basic truth upon which the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the “International Bill of Rights” rest: that all human
beings, regardless of culture and history, share a dignity that will not be denied.
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Throughout the world there are many different cultures and legal systems. There are
many differing opinions and perspectives on what constitutes a “human right,” and
whether such a right should be protected by government or, failing such protection, by the
demand and will of the people. What is the role of the legal profession in determining and,
more importantly, in protecting human rights in our respective countries?
In the fall of 2005, early in my year as president of the American Bar Association, I
had the pleasure of addressing a group of one hundred fellow bar leaders during
conferences on three different occasions: Prague in September, London in October and
Paris in November.
In Prague and again in London I expressed my firm belief that all the lawyers of the
world must view ourselves as colleagues in one world legal profession, not as isolated,
national legal professions having to withstand separately the frequent attacks of
governments when rights of fellow citizens are trampled upon, or when the independence
of lawyers or the independence of the judiciary is attacked by those seeking to protect their
power or special interests.
I said to the one hundred bar leaders in 2005, and today I say again: united as one
world legal profession we can help each other in our respective countries in protecting
human rights and freedoms, and help each other protect our justice systems from attacks
that come with predictable regularity. The reason that the legal profession must do so is
this simple truth: that all people in the world are connected by a shared dignity -- that we
are all of one human race.
I said also in 2005 that harm to the people of one country is harm to the dignity and
rights of people of all countries; that harm to our colleagues in the legal profession in one
country is harm to the legal profession and my colleagues in the United States, and to all
lawyers in all countries; and that the harm from any attack of the independence of the
judiciary in any country is harm to the legal justice system --and protection of human
rights in all countries.
By the time our group of one hundred met for a third time in Paris, in November 2005,
the group decided to adopt a “Statement of Core Principles of the Legal Profession” that
would accomplish two purposes: (a) to clearly state the fundamental unifying principles
that bind all lawyers worldwide; and (b) to reaffirm for the public in simple language the
responsibility and commitment of all lawyers to protect the rights of people. During that
all-day conference I had the honor of drafting the Statement, which provides as follows:
STATEMENT OF CORE PRINCIPLES
Adopted by the meeting of the Presidents of bars and international organizations,
In Paris, France
November 19th, 2005
Maison du Barreau
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The legal profession throughout the world, in the interest of the public, is committed to
these core principles:
1) An impartial and independent judiciary, without which there is no rule of law.
2) An independent legal profession, without which there is no rule of law or
freedom of the people.
3) Access to justice for all people throughout the world, which is only possible
with an independent legal profession and an impartial and independent
judiciary.
These core principles shall not yield to any emergency of the moment.
The “Statement of Core Principles of the Legal Profession” adopted by the hundred
leaders in Paris in November 2005 was adopted unanimously by the American Bar
Association House of Delegates in February 2006, and has been adopted by the governing
bodies of many bars throughout the world. The Statement underscores the global legal
profession’s enduring and unwavering commitment to protect the human rights of all
people.
What are those human rights?
One’s definition of a “human right” depends on a variety of factors, including one’s
cultural background (social, legal, and otherwise); one’s particular human needs as an
individual or as a member of a group; and one’s professional focus, among other factors.
In the West, especially in the United States, civil and political rights are
emphasized; while economic, social and cultural rights generally are not understood as
“rights” at all. Instead, programs such as Social Security and Medicare, for example, are
deemed pragmatic “safety net” programs -- the “pragmatism” of which is constantly
debated and typically corresponds to one’s place on the “liberal to conservative” political
spectrum. Yet, analytically if not politically, these programs in the US can be understood
as fulfilling, or at least approaching, the standard of “progressive realization” that is set
forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In other Western societies such as in Europe, the notion of economic, social and
cultural rights that are legally enforceable as such is more generally accepted; and, in other
societies these rights receive far more emphasis – socially, legally and otherwise -- than do
civil and political rights. As noted, these distinctions often are reflected in one’s
professional circumstances as well. A chief executive officer will often emphasize
individual liberty and freedom of contract, for example, while a health care provider will
emphasize access to quality medical care; or a social worker, access to adequate shelter
and rehabilitative services.
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A major challenge for all of us is how to reconcile these cultural, political,
economic and social differences in emphasis, perspective and definition of “human rights”
with their protection under a global and just rule of law.
The American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, which I am pleased to
chair, is engaged in numerous ways in the effort to protect human rights and advance the
rule of law both in the US and internationally. The ABA Center’s objectives include (1)
increasing public understanding of and respect for the rule of law, the legal process and the
role of the legal profession at home and throughout the world; (2) holding all governments
accountable under law; and (3) working for just laws that protect human rights.
The Center is the ABA’s focal-point entity for addressing core concerns in
international human rights law as embodied in the so-called “International Bill of Rights”
--- generally understood to consist of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The ABA Center’s programs, only several of which I will describe in these brief
remarks, reflect the Center’s mission:
1. The Center’s Justice Defenders Program provides support to embattled lawyers
and advocates in all regions of the world who are struggling to advance human rights under
oppressive conditions. That support includes (1) assisting those lawyers and advocates by
providing them with expertise in international human rights law; and expertise in
conducting the trial of a human rights case; and (2) sending expert trial observers to
courtrooms to witness ongoing trials and make public any denial of due process or other
rights by a corrupt system of justice. Global in scope, the Justice Defenders program goes
to the very heart of the ABA’s – and the legal profession’s -- obligation to support
colleagues worldwide who seek a just rule of law based on fundamental human rights
principles.
The ABA Center for Human Rights invites your participation, and the committed
engagement of the legal profession worldwide -- lawyers, judges, law students, law
professors and bar associations --as the collective guardians of a just rule of law which in
turn assures respect for and protection of human rights.
2. The Atrocity Prevention Network – being developed through the efforts of the ABA
Center for Human Rights, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other
collaborators, brings to bear the weight of the ABA, the Holocaust Museum and other
human rights organizations to eliminate governmental excuses for inaction to prevent or
respond rapidly to the outbreak of mass atrocities, including genocide, crimes against
humanity, and war crimes. The project is based on ABA policy endorsing the
recommendations set forth in the report entitled “Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for
U.S. Policymakers,” issued by the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Task Force. The Task
Force was co-chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former US
Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
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3. The Center’s Human Anti-Trafficking Project – The Center currently is working with
the US Uniform Law Commission to develop a model anti-trafficking law -- including the
trafficking of children for sexual or slave labor purposes -- for nationwide adoption by the
states. Most criminal sanctions for human trafficking are matters of state law, which
currently is either non-existent or ineffective in dealing with human trafficking. Some
states have well developed anti-trafficking laws, many states have none at all, and others
have shoe-horned trafficking into existing criminal codes, all producing a loose patchwork
that inhibits effective prosecution and prevention of this grotesque practice. The Center’s
proposed model law will offer a streamlined approach to the criminal and civil law issues
arising from human trafficking in the United States.
4. The ABA Rule of Law Letter -- by which the American Bar Association conveys its
concerns or condemnation of governmental mistreatment of human rights lawyers and
advocates -- is initiated by the Center, either on its own volition or at the request of another
ABA entity. The Center investigates the facts of the situation, researches the applicable
human rights law, and prepares a letter for transmittal by the ABA President to the
offending government
These examples give you an idea of the human rights work that the ABA Center for
Human Rights currently is engaged in. I am aware that many of you in this room, and
your bar organizations, are engaged in heroic efforts to protect human rights in your
country. I urge you never to underestimate the importance of those efforts. And do not
doubt that the people of your country and, indeed, the people of other countries, look to
lawyers for assurance, for confirmation, that the legal profession is protecting their rights.
Let me underscore that point with a personal experience I had during my year as president
of the American Bar Association when I traveled to Ankara, Turkey, in March 2006.
The purpose of my trip to Turkey, which also took me to Almaty, Kazakhstan and
Moscow, was to discuss developments in the US regarding alternatives to court litigation
for resolving legal disputes. I spoke for about twenty minutes in a large auditorium filled
with many hundreds of people, many of them wearing their overcoats because of the
extreme cold outside and lack of adequate heat in the auditorium. After I concluded my
remarks I agreed to answer questions.
The first question posed was from an elderly gentleman who asked why I had said
nothing about the violation of human rights of American citizens by what he called a
lawless US government, and why I had said nothing about what the American Bar
Association or I as its president were doing to protect the rights of Americans. The
program moderator quickly declared the question out of order, and said that I would not
have to answer political questions.
I informed the moderator, and the audience, that I would answer the question, that I
could sense that the question was on the minds of most people in the audience and that the
question deserved an answer.
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I began by pointing out that the American Bar Association, unlike bar organizations
in many countries, is independent of the US government; that the ABA supports the
government when it acts in accordance with the US Constitution, but that the ABA
(through policy positions debated in our House of Delegates) does not hesitate to criticize
the government when its actions violate the Constitution.
I informed the audience that since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the
ABA had adopted twelve resolutions addressing unlawful US government policies or
actions that violated US or international laws; that the ABA resolutions related, for
example, to unacceptable US government or military actions permitting or condoning the
torture of military prisoners, the mistreatment of prisoners being held at Guantanamo, the
government’s program of spying on American citizens as part of its surveillance of
terrorist activities, the use of military tribunals instead of the federal courts to try terrorist
suspects, among others.
I also informed the audience that in its policy resolutions the ABA urged the US
government to comply with the US Constitution, and to cease policies that violate
domestic or international laws; and that the American Bar Association and I as its
president would continue to speak out on these grave issues to protect constitutional and
human rights and help ensure US compliance with international legal principles. When I
finished, I asked to man who had posed the question whether I had answered his question.
The man rose from his seat and simply began to applaud. He was immediately joined by
hundreds of others in the audience.
The experience reinforced my belief that what we lawyers – and bar organizations do throughout the world to hold governments accountable, and to protect the rights of
people is carefully, and hopefully, noted and applauded by the public – and lamented when
we fail to act. I will never forget that event in Ankara, Turkey, or the response of the
audience upon hearing what the American Bar Association and US lawyers were doing to
protect the constitutional rights of Americans, and the human rights of both Americans
non-Americans.
The American Bar Association, led by the ABA Center for Human Rights in
collaboration with each of you in this room and your bar organizations will, and must,
continue our unwavering efforts to protect human rights in the United States and
throughout the world.
Before I conclude these remarks I want to address the related, and important, role
of lawyers in society to represent, and provide access to justice to vulnerable people who
cannot afford to retain a lawyer to protect their legal rights – what is referred to as pro
bono legal representation.
In the US there is a strong tradition and culture of lawyers volunteering their
expertise and valuable time to help poor persons protect their rights – be they
constitutional or human rights, or rights to health benefits, housing, custody of children,
and other needs that are basic to human existence. Each year in the US tens of thousands
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of lawyers provide hundreds of thousands of hours of free legal services to fellow human
beings who are in great need of help. My understanding is that such a tradition does not
exist in all countries. I urge you to urge your colleagues to undertake pro bono legal
representation in appropriate cases.
Why do I make such a suggestion to lawyers who are very busy trying to develop
their skills and reputations to become great lawyers and who are trying to provide a
comfortable living for their own families?
The reasons are simple and direct.
First, because providing such pro bono help is what great lawyers do.
Second, because we lawyers are greatly privileged to be lawyers, fortunate to hold
a position of respect and power in society that comes from our training and our pivotal role
in ensuring that the justice system operates efficiently and fairly, that everyone has access
to that justice system to protect their rights. But “everyone” must mean everyone – not
just some, not just the wealthy. You know and I know that in our respective countries not
“everyone” has access to the justice system – only people who have the money to hire a
lawyer do so.
In the US it has been reliably documented in numerous nationwide studies that 80%
of the legal needs of poor persons go unaddressed each year because they have no lawyer
to help them. The problems that make each day – every day -- one of misery for such
people can often readily be solved with the assistance of a lawyer and his/her legal
expertise.
I believe that it is the moral obligation of every lawyer in the world to provide such
pro bono assistance – to share the expertise we have, to utilize for the public good the
privileged stature that society bestows upon us because we are the problem solvers and the
protectors of rights in society.
The lawyers in the US who provide pro bono representation not only do a great
service to the individuals who they help; they do a great service to themselves. They are
not only developing their legal skills, and adding to their legal experience, they derive the
great feeling – the exhilaration –that only comes from knowing that you have made a
difference in someone’s life – that you have saved a human life in some fashion.
When someone without means asks you to help them with a legal problem, but can
only pay little or not at all because he or she has not money to put food on the table – do
not turn them away. Help that person. That’s what great lawyers do. When all is said and
done, this is the lawyer’s most important role in society: protector of the rights of not just
some, but of all people. I guarantee that you will feel better for volunteering your training
and skills to help a child, woman or man ease their misery.
Thank you for your kind attention. I will be pleased to answer your questions.
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