The European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) course on “Refugee and Migrant Children” was launched online on 28 May in cooperation with the Gaziantep Bar Association of Turkey, under the Action on “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”. The online event brought together 156 lawyers with the representatives of Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, Gaziantep Bar Association of Turkey, the trainers of the course and the Action team.

In their opening speeches, both the president of the Gaziantep Bar Association, Mr Bektaş Şarklı, and the Head of Ankara Programme Office of the Council of Europe Mr Cristian Urse highlighted the importance of the course for lawyers, having in mind the high number of refugee and migrant children in Turkey.

Representative of the Action, Mr. Çağlar Kiran, gave a general overview of the courses offered by the HELP online platform and provided in the framework of the Action. It was also announced that alongside the "Refugee and Migrant Children” course, additional five virtual training sessions are to be organised in cooperation with the Gaziantep Bar Assocaition for lawyers, namely “Asylum and ECHR”, “Alternatives to Immigration Detention”, “CPT standards”, “Prohibition of Ill-Treatment” and “Child Friendly Justice”.

Ms Zehra Sağlam, human rights lawyer at the Gaziantep Bar Association, attended the event as a guest speaker and presented the practical aspects that practising lawyers should pay attention while dealing with refugee and migrant children.

The trainers of the HELP course, Mr Serkan Cengiz and Ms Gizem Üliç Karaağaçlı presented the HELP platform, content, demonstrated how to access and effectively use the platform and how to interact with the trainer and other participants in the virtual training lesson. He also spoke about relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

The HELP Course on “Refugee and Migrant Children” explains how critical issues are addressed in the international and European legal framework and provides an overview of the relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The participants are expected to improve their knowledge and skills on the existing standards in this area and to apply them in their daily work.

The course was organised within the framework of the Action “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”, part of the European Union/Council of Europe collaboration “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.