More than 40 Albanian candidate judges and prosecutors are benefitting from the online course on Child-friendly justice, part of the Council of Europe HELP Programme (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) implemented in co-operation with the Albanian School of Magistrates.

On 5 November, the HELP course on Child-friendly justice was presented to participants during an online launching event, organised in the framework of the joint EU and Council of Europe action “HELP in the Western Balkans”

The group of candidates was welcomed by Mariana Semini - Head of the Initial Training Programme of the School of Magistrates - who praised the cooperation with the Council of Europe and its HELP online courses as a useful and high-quality resource for justice professionals as well as trainers.

Moreover, participants could benefit from an intervention of Arta Mandro - lecturer at the School of Magistrates and responsible for its Continuous Training - who highlighted the importance for professionals to be familiar the child-friendly justice principles and practices to ensure that all children have adequate access to and treatment in justice in a respectful and responsible manner.

Following a presentation of the HELP Programme and its main components, Eliora Elezi - prosecutor and HELP tutor - illustrated the practical aspects of the course implementation and the content of the Albanian version. Following the launch event, the HELP online course will be implemented through the Council of Europe HELP platform over a 2-month period.

The HELP course on Child-friendly justice aims to strengthen and harmonise the knowledge of the relevant European standards on child-friendly justice across Europe. The course is composed by nine modules and it is currently available to all users in Albanian, English and other languages:

1. Introduction
2. Child-friendly justice
3. Non-judicial proceedings
4. General elements
5. Interaction with children in the judicial system: main challenges
6. Interdisciplinarity
7. Deprivation of liberty
8. Violence against children
9. Migration and asylum

This event was organised within the scope of the regional action “HELP in the Western Balkans” which is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.