Within the framework of the CoE project “Support to criminal justice reforms in the Republic of Moldova” the CoE HELP distance learning course on Admissibility criteria in applications submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) designed for lawyers (hereinafter - the course), was officially launched on 23 June 2016 in Chisinau, in cooperation with the Union of Lawyers from Republic of Moldova and the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova. The group of enrolled trainees included 25 lawyers and junior lawyers and one representative of the office of the Governmental Agent of the Republic of Moldova before the ECtHR.

According to the HELP methodology, the course was developed by the Council of Europe experts and adapted to the Moldovan legal order by national tutors, who were officially appointed by the Union of Lawyers from Republic of Moldova and certified by the HELP Secretariat.

The course will last for 5 weeks by covering one subject per week. The first module “Overview and Procedure” includes an introduction to the ECHR rights, subsidiarity principle and rules of admissibility of an application. The second module titled “Grounds for Inadmissibility - Part One” aims at defining the incompatibility, anonymity, substantially the same, abuse of right concepts. The third module “Grounds for Inadmissibility - Part Two” addresses the non-exhaustion of domestic remedies, the six month and no significant disadvantage rules to be met for submitting an application to the ECtHR. The forth module “Grounds for Inadmissibility - Part Three” explains the manifestly ill-founded concept and the fifth module “Striking Out and Completing the Form” gives a comprehensive information on the criteria for completing the form to be submitted to the ECtHR.

The course is conducted in Romanian and is moderated by two Moldovan HELP certified tutors, aiming at enhancing capacity of lawyers of the Republic of Moldova in preparing and submitting applications to the Strasbourg Court.