Several HELP events were organised between 21 and 23 November in Pristina in the framework of the Support to the implementation of European Human Rights Standards and the reform of the Ombudsman Institution project.

On 21 November, a kick-off meeting for the launch of the courses on Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Hate Crime was organised to present the courses. Participants were provided with some introductory information on the HELP Programme and its e-learning platform.

The course on Introduction to the ECHR is available in Albanian and in Montenegrin and will start shortly for a target group of lawyers. The course on Hate Crime, as developed jointly with the OSCE ODIHR, will also start shortly and will target judges and prosecutors appointed by the Kosovo* Judicial Institute. The course will also be available and Albanian and Bosnian in order to allow Serbian speaking participants to have access to training materials.

An additional course on Anti-discrimination will start in 2017 and will target Ombudsperson officers.

On 22 – 23 November, a HELP Training-of-Trainers (ToT) session was organised at the premises of the  Judicial Institute in Pristina in order to set up a pool of HELP trainers.The group of participants was composed of lawyers, judges, prosecutors, legal advisors from the Constitutional Court and staff members of the Ombudsperson Institute. Participants were introduced to the HELP Programme and its methodology, and a simulation of the implementation of HELP courses was conducted.