On 13 March, the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (DEJ) participated in the launch of a new HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) course on assessing complaints related to conditions of detention in Greek prisons.
This thematic seminar, hosted by the Hellenic National School for the Judiciary in Thessaloniki, brought together 60 Greek judges and prosecutors, as well as other key national stakeholders, including representatives of the Legal Council of State acting as the national execution coordinator.
The speakers presented the application of the available domestic remedies following complaints about conditions of detention; a matter of ongoing importance for the execution of the Nisiotis v. Greece group of cases. During its most recent examination of this group, the Committee of Ministers encouraged the authorities to further intensify their efforts to ensure harmonisation of the case-law, including through dissemination and targeted training of judges. The Committee of Ministers will examine the Nisiotis group at its Human Rights meeting in December 2026.
The new HELP course was developed by the Council of Europe Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme, in cooperation with the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights and the DEJ, within the framework of the Dialogue between the Registry and the Execution Department. The course is designed to equip judges and prosecutors with extensive knowledge on CoE standards that they can apply in their daily work when assessing relevant complaints.
The event was organised within the framework of the project "Support to efficient domestic capacity for the execution of ECtHR judgments (Phase 2)" which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund.
