The International Bar Association (IBA) recently announced that its annual conference in 2011 will be held in Dubai. This will be held in the latter part of the year, although a date has not yet been confirmed. 

From the 18th to the 21st of January Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the IBA and Fernando Pelaez Pier, President of the IBA, visited Dubai to meet with relevant government officials to prepare  for the 2011 event. 

The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession throughout the world. It has a membership of more than 35,000 individual lawyers and 197 bar associations and law societies spanning all continents. It has considerable expertise in providing assistance to the global legal community.

The principal aims and objectives of the IBA are to promote an exchange of information between legal associations worldwide; to support the independence of the judiciary and the right of lawyers to practise their profession without interference; and support of human rights for lawyers worldwide through its Human Rights Institute. The IBA works towards these objectives through three main areas of activity: Services for individual lawyer members through its divisions, committees and constituents; support for activities of bar associations and in particular developing bars; and support of human rights for lawyers worldwide.

To find out more about the upcoming event please visit the IBA website at http://www.ibanet.org/'