Tajikistan will celebrate the ‘Professional Day of the Lawyer’ on 26 May, the day when the first Bar Association was established in Tajikistan 95 years ago this year. For lawyers, though, there will be little to celebrate: this anniversary comes at a time when the country is increasingly turning its back on human rights and the rule of law, and when lawyers in Tajikistan are confronted with significant obstacles in the exercise of their professional duty. To be a lawyer, and particularly a human rights lawyer, comes with unprecedented risks in present-day Tajikistan.
