The first HELP Training-of-Trainers (ToT) session with lawyers and lecturers from the Bar Association and the Bar Academy of Serbia took place in Novi Sad on 3-4 June 2022, organised with the support of the EU and Council of Europe joint regional action “HELP in the Western Balkans” .
The aim of the training was to introduce the lawyers and legal professionals with the HELP methodology, expand the scope of HELP tutors and HELP online courses to the Bar Academy that would increase the capacities of the institution to deliver trainings in the field.
The event was organised in co-operation with the Bar Association of Serbia, and it brought together nine lawyers-lecturers at the Bar Academy of Serbia, the only institution of its kind in the region. In his welcoming speech, Vladimir MARINKOV, on behalf of the Bar Academy, thanked the Council of Europe and expressed his satisfaction for the co-operation that will empower lecturers of the Bar Academy with additional skills in the implementation of human rights standards in their daily work. Nadia CUK, Deputy Head of Council of Europe Office in Belgrade, presented the work of the office and the transversal nature of the “HELP in the Western Balkans” action within other projects that are implemented under the programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
The participants were first familiarised with the HELP methodology by Jasminka PERUNICIC ALLEN, Senior Project Officer for the HELP in the Western Balkans. Ana MEDARSKA LAZOVA, Deputy Head of Human Rights and Judiciary Training Division and Ivana KRSTIC, professor at the Faculty of Law of Belgrade University and an experienced HELP tutor, followed with presentations of the role of the tutor and the HELP e-learning tools in this two-days extensive training.
After the successful certification of the tutors, the implementation of nine HELP courses will follow by the end of the year.
This initiative was organised in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” that enables Beneficiaries to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with the European standards, including where relevant within the framework of the EU enlargement process.
