The launching in Rome of the course  against racism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia  for lawyers marked the end of the twenty-five courses launched in 15 EU countries under the EU–CoE “HELP in the 28” Programme.

Participants were greeted by the President of the Italian Bar Council (Consiglio Nazionale Forense-CNF) while CNF head of the training commission, Francesca Sorbi, highlighted the launching of this second course after successful completion of the ‘HELP in the 28’ course on Data Protection and Privacy Rights, brilliantly tutored by lawyer and prof. Giorgio Giannone Codiglione and resulting in 31 certified participants. Francesco Caia, head of the CNF commission on human rights expressed his wish to replicate the DPPR course and to launch the course on asylum and the ECHR.

A lawyer from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Luigi dalle Donne guided the audience through the vast ECtHR case-law, analysing landmark cases included in the course and showing useful ECtHR tools for legal professionals such as factsheets or HUDOC.

Niraj Nathwani, programme manager for legal research at the Equality and Citizens’ Rights Department of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), skilfully presented the FRA’s initiatives in the area of hate crime, insisting on the additional duty of the state to investigate hate/racist motives beyond the mere investigation of the crime. He also highlighted the FRA’s focus on victims’ rights and the need to develop evidenced-based policies and legislation.

Participants showed great interest on the topic, particularly on its links to asylum or minorities such as Roma.

The course covers in an interactive way the key concepts, the European non-discrimination law (from the Council of Europe and EU) and the impressive body of case law of both the Strasbourg and Luxembourg Courts as well as the decision of the European Committee of Social Rights. See here a video presenting the course.

Apart from the HELP in the 28 Programme and its methodology, presented by Eva Pastrana (Programme coordinator), the national tutor, Micol Barnabò, presented the course structure and objectives and how to access it in the e-learning platform. The pace of the course will be intensified, as it has to be concluded before the end of the Programme. Afterwards, the Italian version of the course will be on line in Spring 2017. In the meantime, its English version is already accessible for free at the 'HELP in the 28' website.