In co-operation with the Commercial Appellate Court in Belgrade, the kick-off meeting for the launch of the HELP course on Business and Human Rights was organised on 10 May 2017 in the framework of the HELP in the Western Balkans and Turkey project. The event was attended by judges and judicial assistants of the Basic and Appellate Commercial Court.

Participants were welcomed by the President of the Appellate Commercial Court, Ms Jasmina Obucina. Participants were able to benefit from an in-depth introduction to the course, provided by Mr Wayne Jordash (coordinator of the working group in charge of the development of the HELP course). Finally, the national tutor provided additional practical information on the implementation of the course.

The course will be available in Serbian for the selected group of Serbian judges starting from the 15^th May 2017. The course is currently available to any user in English here and it is the first launch of this course in the Western Balkans.

The HELP course on Business and Human Rights is composed of 5 modules:

1. Introduction
2. The State duty to protect human rights (focusing on the State’s obligations to protect the human rights and groups against abuses by business enterprises);
3. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights (as defined in domestic legislation and international instruments including the European Social Charter);
4. Access to remedy for business-related human rights violations and abuses (focusing on the legal basis of the right to a remedy via State-based judicial mechanisms, State-based non-judicial mechanisms and non-State based grievance mechanisms);
5. Extraterritoriality and the ECHR – implications for business and human rights