On 13 October 2018, the Council of Europe organized a kick-off meeting to launch the first HELP distance course for law students on “Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights” in Baku, Azerbaijan. The distant course was developed within the framework of the Council of Europe and the European Union Joint Programme “Application of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in Azerbaijan” under “Partnership for Good Governance”.
The HELP distance course will be implemented for a group of nearly 40 Azerbaijani law students from Baku State University, State Customs Academy and Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is the first occasion for the region to organize a HELP distance course for students as the part of their education program. The objective of the course is to strengthen the knowledge of the students about European Convention on Human Rights as well as the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The HELP course will be conducted by Ms. Lale Farzaliyeva and Mr. Elnur Aslanov, HELP certified national tutors.
The launching event started with opening speech from Ms. Vafa Rovshanova, Senior Project Officer at Council of Europe Azerbaijan office, who introduced the course tutors and highlighted the positive impact of the HELP Programme in training of national lawyers. Afterwards, the successful participants of the previously held two HELP distance courses for practicing lawyers and attorneys were awarded with their HELP certificates.
Following the certificate award ceremony, Mr. Zulfigar Babayev, HELP Focal Point for Azerbaijan, delivered the presentation of HELP, its methodology and demonstrated the online courses available in the HELP Platform. The participants were afterwards enrolled to the HELP distance course.
At the end of the event, the participants were provided with practical information related to implementation of the course and interaction with their HELP tutors. The general outline of the course was introduced by Ms. Lale Farzaliyeva, HELP National tutor, who also clarified the participants’ tasks during the implementation of the HELP course. Following the Q&A session with participants the event was closed.
The HELP course will be implemented from 13 October until 20 December 2018. Following the completion of the course, the successful participants will be certified by the Council of Europe.