The President of the International Bar Association (IBA) has expressed concern about a recommendation in a UN-backed report that governments should regulate lawyers in line with “the demands of sustainable finance and the public interest”.

The new report is on barriers to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is authored by FACTI – a panel set up to look at actions the international community may need to take in areas such as financial transparency, tax, corruption and money-laundering.

Focus on 'small element'

Addressing a panel of UN member-state representatives, IBA president Sternford Moyo (small picture) described the FACTI report’s assertion that “self-regulation does not work” as incorrect.

“Government regulation of the legal profession is not a proposal with which the IBA, as the global voice of the legal profession, can concur,” Mr Moyo said, adding that an independent legal profession was a much-valued cornerstone of the rule of law in functioning democracies.

He said that while the IBA was committed to the fight against financial crime, providing governments with oversight of the legal profession as a remedy was “of great concern”, adding that there had been numerous instances of lawyers being jailed for carrying out their duties.

IBA executive director Dr Mark Ellissaid said the FACTI report focused on the wrongdoings of “a small criminal element”, which had brought the profession into disrepute.