After the Bar Association of Bizkaia requested the removal of the obligation to wear stickers for people prosecuted for gender violence in the courts of Bilbao, because it considers that “it undermines the presumption of innocence, equality, dignity and effective judicial protection”, the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country has decided to eliminate the measure, which will come into force this Thursday, as judicial sources confirmed to the Efe Agency.
The measure, intended to avoid meetings in court between complainants and defendants, was not a rule, but rather “a form of internal organization adopted by the courts of violence against women in their autonomy and independence; they do not need any permit,” stressed the chief judge of the capital of Bizkaia, Aner Uriarte. Despite this, the Bar Association of Bizkaia considered that such measures “are disproportionate and unnecessary, reprehensible both from a legal and ethical point of view, without any legal support and contrary to the rule of law”, which is why it demanded that “the suppression be carried out immediately”. A complaint that was later joined by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, which considered this measure as “an attack on the dignity of the profession”.
Specifically, the measure is part of the new Action Protocol on the mobility and circulation of people and professionals who go to the judicial offices of Bilbao, which provides that investigators, lawyers and witnesses in cases of gender violence must wear stickers as a badge. in the women’s courts. For judges like Uriarte, this measure is “logical”. “Sometimes the establishments register a “significant agglomeration” of people and these cases, in particular, must be resolved the same day, because you cannot tell a woman to come back tomorrow and that she must stay at home with her until she is home. then. the accused.
However, this is something that has created a “deep unease” among lawyers, to the point that the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of Bizkaia explained that it had studied the content of the protocol and had received “different complaints” from its members.
One of the problems that lawyers denounce is that in their case, the visible stickers are an “absolutely inappropriate, inadequate and useless” measure since in order to access the various judicial seats, they must already present their professional card to the security personnel who access them. control access. Likewise, where appropriate, they must present their professional accreditation – collegiate card – before the competent judicial bodies in order to identify themselves. “The imposition of the wearing of a visible sticker to identify oneself as a lawyer is not only useless, but also totally contrary to the respect and decorum that must be guaranteed to legal professionals, as well as to the exercise of their function as legal operators.”, they criticize.
In this sense, the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of Bizkaia considers that the measures contained in the action protocol regarding the mobility and circulation of people who go to judicial functions “are disproportionate and unnecessary, both from a legal and ethical point of view, without it being necessary.” no legal support and contrary to the principles of the rule of law. “The system implemented violates the presumption of innocence and dignity of the people under investigation and represents an ‘anticipated sentence’, leaving the person investigated isolated and marked in front of the rest of the people who appear before the courts of violence,” he said. concludes.
