to ensure professional standards, as well as to uphold the independence of the judiciary and legal profession is critical. Institutional arrangements vary across the region. In Taiwan, the Ministry of Justice oversees the Bar Association which was set up in 1948, and is responsible for granting lawyer licenses and controlling, to a certain extent, the revocation of lawyers’ licenses and disciplinary actions towards lawyers. However, the Bar Association enjoys a high degree of autonomy in operations, and the Ministry of Justice only exercises minimal influence over its work. In Pakistan, only 60% of JPP’s survey respondents felt that defence lawyers can effectively represent clients without interference from other actors. One lawyer interviewed for the purpose of this report felt that lawyers who were relatively financially stable were more independent than others. The same interviewee also felt that there is pressure from within the legal fraternity which inhibits independence and stressed the need for more minority and women’s representation in the training of lawyers and appointment of judges. In China, lawyers operate outside the CCP-led judicial system but a directive requires law firms to establish a party committee. The All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) is the official professional body for lawyers in China. Founded in 1986, the Association is directly answerable to the Ministry of Justice. Chinese lawyers are obliged to be members of the local ACLA branch and ACLA has the responsibility, each year, to renew lawyers’ licenses and register law firms. This system of license renewal is used by the authorities to control and punish lawyers, especially those that take cases involving rights abuses and deemed politically sensitive. Chinese lawyers and law firms must re-register annually, leaving them vulnerable to political pressure. With Chinese lawyers facing obstruction meeting clients, accessing case files, and calling expert witnesses our researcher noted that lawyers and scholars in China have questioned the idea that the ACLA is intended to “safeguard lawyers’ rights.” In Malaysia, the Malaysian Bar Council manages the affairs and functions of the Malaysian Bar, the largest of three bar associations. The Malaysian Bar is an independent professional body and has a total of 20,556 members. The Bar is active in defending human rights and fundamental civil liberties. Since 2006, the Bar has passed resolutions calling for the abolition of the death penalty following the imposition of an immediate moratorium on all executions. On 11 March 2012, lawyers unanimously passed a resolution at the Bar Council annual general meeting calling for capital punishment to be abolished and replaced with life imprisonment. Equality Before the Courts Under international law everyone should have equal access to adequate legal assistance regardless of whether they can pay for it. ICCPR article 14 provides for the right to legal assistance of one’s own choice or “to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay 9