Following the successful implementation of two editions of the HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence in Armenia, a third group of Armenian justice professionals will benefit from this course over the upcoming three months. This third edition is again organised in close cooperation with the Armenian Justice Academy, this time within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Armenia: continuing the path towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention”.
On 4 October, the course participants gathered in the Justice Academy for an initial face-to-face course launching event. Anahit Manasyan, Vice-rector of the Justice Academy, opened the launching event, referring to the relevance of the issue of violence against women and domestic violence for the Armenian legal professionals and to the noticeable effects of the previously implemented courses. Liana Amirbekyan, Senior Project Coordinator, Council of Europe, stressed the excellent cooperation with the Justice Academy.
The HELP Programme was presented by Ana Medarska-Lazova, HELP Project Officer, who also briefly introduced the HELP course on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. The national tutor of the course, Lusine Sargsyan, provided an introduction to the European and international standards in this field, as well as to the recent domestic developments in the area. The course participants were then demonstrated how to use the HELP Platform during the course implementation and were provided further details on the course implementation schedule.
The advantage of this particular group of participants is its mixed composition. Namely, alongside judges, prosecutors and investigators, the group includes lawyers representing social centres and civil society organisations active in the topic, thus mirroring the multi-agency approach needed for tackling the phenomenon of violence against women.
The course will be implemented in the period October – December 2019, following which the successful participants will be certified jointly by the Justice Academy and the Council of Europe HELP Programme.
The HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence was developed in 2017, jointly with the Council of Europe Gender Equality Division, and has since been implemented in a number of countries, including Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovenia and Ukraine.
It is composed of the following eights modules:
- Understanding violence against women and domestic violence
- International and European legal framework
- Overcoming barriers / access to justice
- Criminal Justice Response I – Investigation and pre-trial
- Criminal Justice Response II – Trial and sentencing
- Civil Justice Response
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
Group photo from the third group of Armenian legal professionals taking the HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence
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