The CLA and its partners the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and the Law Society of England and Wales invite you to join them for a webinar on 9th September as they examine “Voices Under Pressure: Defending Freedom of Expression for Lawyers and Journalists”, moderated by CLA President Steven Thiru.

Webinar Overview

The webinar marks the launch of collaborative research on the right of lawyers to freedom of expression, grounded in international legal standards (including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and the Council of Europe’s new Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer), and a report on defamation laws across the Commonwealth.

The webinar will explore how legal frameworks and disciplinary measures are weaponised to silence lawyers and journalists around the world simply for doing their job.

This is an important opportunity to examine global patterns of repression, share insights on legal protections, and strengthen advocacy for those who defend human rights, access to justice and the rule of law.

To register for the event please click on the link 

Time:
7.30 am CT and AST
12.30 pm London BST
12.30 pm WAT
13.30 pm CAT
17.00 pm IST
19.30 pm HK, MYT
21.30 pm PGT

Date: 9th September 2025

Speakers:

» Dr. Debra Long, International Policy Manager for Rule of Law and Human Rights at the Law Society of England and Wales

» Sneh Aurora, Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

»Kevin Yam, Law Academic Associate and PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School

»  Closing address: Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, will give the closing address.

Moderator:

» Steven Thiru, President, Commonwealth Lawyers Association

Panel profiles

Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Human Rights Council in October 2022.

Professor Satterthwaite is an international human rights scholar and practitioner with decades of experience in the field. She is a Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law, where she directs the Global Justice Clinic and serves as a faculty director of the Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice

Sneh Aurora is an international human rights lawyer and legal and policy practitioner with over 20 years’ experience advancing human rights and access to justice. She is currently Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an independent, Commonwealth-accredited organisation. CHRI works to strengthen democratic institutions and promote the practical realisation of human rights across the Commonwealth, with a focus on access to justice, freedom of expression and media freedom, the right to information, and the eradication of contemporary forms of slavery, human trafficking and forced labour.

Sneh holds a Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Toronto and has worked with governments, UN agencies, national human rights institutions, and civil society organisations globally, including Amnesty International, International Service for Human Rights, and Association for the Prevention of Torture.

She has contributed to international standard-setting processes, including the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, the Montreal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and various general recommendations under international treaties.

Sneh also serves on the Management Committees of the Commonwealth 8.7 Network and The Commonwealth Equality Network. Committed to inclusive, rights-based governance, she brings a strategic and collaborative approach to advocacy, grounded in evidence and informed by experience across diverse legal and political contexts.

Dr. Debra Long

Debra is the international policy manager for rule of law and human rights at the Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW). In this role, Debra oversees the Lawyers at Risk programme, which supports lawyers globally who face human rights violations because of their work. Debra also manages the Peer Engagement and Capacity Building programme at the LSEW, which aims to work together with other law societies and bar associations, as well as lawyers, government officials and civil society organisations to promote the independence of the legal profession, protection for lawyers and adherence to the rule of law.

Debra is a UK qualified solicitor specialised in international human rights and holds a PhD in human rights law from the University of Bristol, UK. Since 2000, Debra has worked globally to promote the implementation of human rights. Before joining the Law Society, Debra was deputy director of the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol Law School. She has also worked as a legal and policy adviser at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, and as head of the UN and legal programme at the Association for the Prevention of Torture in Geneva, Switzerland. As well as conducting advocacy at the UN and regional human rights systems, Debra has led international research projects and published widely on international human rights, including on the prevention of torture and the implementation of human rights decisions.

Debra’s career in human rights has enabled her to engage with stakeholders in many commonwealth countries, and her membership of the Executive Committee provides an avenue to continue to collaborate with a range of stakeholders across the Commonwealth.

Kevin Yam

Born in Hong Kong and educated in Melbourne with Master degrees in both Commerce and Law, Kevin qualified as a Hong Kong solicitor in 2005. He spent his private practice career in international law firms and as an in-house lawyer at a ‘Big Four’ accounting firm, including being a partner at an international law firm from 2013-2022. His practice specialisation included financial services regulatory investigations and proceedings, white collar crime, and commercial and audit-related litigation.

Outside of his professional practice during his years in Hong Kong, Kevin served as a member of the Law Society of Hong Kong’s Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights Committee from 2005-2015. He became a public figure in 2014, when he led an unexpectedly successful campaign for a motion of no confidence motion to be passed against the then Law Society of Hong Kong President, over the President’s support for China State Council’s While Paper on ‘One Country, Two Systems’ in Hong Kong. Kevin then became a founding member and co-convenor of Hong Kong Progressive Lawyers Group from 2015-2018 and as a media commentator on Hong Kong and China legal and political issues since 2015, during which he was and continues to be a Hong Kong rule of law, democracy and human rights advocate.

After returning to Australia in 2022, Kevin continued his public activism on Hong Kong issues. One of his efforts, namely his testimony before the United States Congressional-Executive Committee on China in May 2023, caused him to be put on the Hong Kong Government National Security Law wanted list in July 2023, with a bounty of HKD1,000,000 (~GBP95,000) over his head. The same testimony also led to his being struck off the roll of solicitors in Hong Kong by the city’s Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in July 2025.

Besides being a Hong Kong activist, wanted person and disbarred ex-solicitor, Kevin is currently working on his PhD at Melbourne Law School, with his thesis focusing on the impact of an increasingly authoritarian Hong Kong on the city’s international financial centre status. His research interests span both public and private law-related areas. He is also a Law Academic Associate at Melbourne Law School, a role which encompasses both teaching and research activities.

Steven Thiru

Steven Thiru is the CLA President.

He is the Managing Partner of Messrs. Steven Thiru in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and a senior litigation lawyer. His main areas of practice are administrative law, constitutional law, commercial law, corporate law, employment law, energy law, native title law and general litigation. He appears regularly as senior counsel in the superior and appellate courts.

Steven read law at the University of Leicester and was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales at Middle Temple. He was then admitted to the Malaysian Bar. Steven also holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Malaya.

Steven was ranked as a “Leading Individual for Dispute Resolution” by the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2019 and as a “Distinguished Practitioner” by Asialaw 2020 and 2021.  Chambers Asia Pacific 2022 recognized him as “an experienced counsel.   He is measured and calm and takes a balanced view on things”. Steven was ranked as a Litigation Star in Labour & Employment law by Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific 2024. Recently, Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2025 inducted Steven in the Hall of Fame (Dispute Resolution) for Malaysia, with a testimonial that he is a “… strategic …brilliant lawyer “.

Steven has been a CLA member since 1999 and a CLA Council member since 2006. He was the Chair of CLA’s Australasia Hub in 2018 and was elected as Vice President (Australasia) of the CLA in 2019. Steven has also served as a CLA Exco member since 2019. He is a fervent  advocate for the independence of the bar , and led CLA’s  inaugural Bar Leaders forum at the Commonwealth Law Conference in Goa, India in 2023.

Steven brings 32 years of professional experience as a lawyer, which includes 10 years on the Bar Council of Malaysia. He served as the 31st President of the Malaysian Bar in 2015 and 2016. He is currently one of the Vice Presidents of LAWASIA.