Chapter 4 • Independence and Impartiality of Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 7. Concluding Remarks As emphasized throughout this chapter, judges, prosecutors and lawyers are three professional groups that play a crucial role in the administration of justice and in the prevention of impunity for human rights violations. They are consequently also essential for the preservation of a democratic society and the maintenance of a just rule of law. It is therefore indispensable that States assume their international legal duties derived from the various sources of international law, whereby they must permit judges, prosecutors and lawyers to carry out their professional responsibilities independently and impartially without undue interference from the Executive, Legislature or private groups or individuals. States’ duty to secure the independence and impartiality of judges and prosecutors and the independence of lawyers is not necessarily fulfilled by passively allowing these professions to go about their business: through having a legal obligation to ensure their independence, States may have to take positive actions to protect judges, lawyers, and prosecutors against violence, intimidation, hindrance, harassment or other improper interference so as to enable them to perform all their professional functions effectively. In situations where judges, prosecutors and lawyers are either unwilling or unable fully to assume their responsibilities, inter alia of investigation and instituting criminal proceedings against public officials suspected of corruption and serious human rights violations, the rule of law cannot be maintained and human rights cannot be enforced. It is not only individuals who will suffer in such a situation: it is the entire free and democratic constitutional order of the State concerned that will ultimately be in jeopardy. 158 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers