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Back Azerbaijani lawyers to benefit from the HELP course on Introduction to the ECHR and the ECtHR

On 28 April 2021, the Council of Europe HELP course on Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was launched for nearly 50 Azerbaijani lawyers, in cooperation with the Bar Association of Azerbaijan.

In his opening speech for the course virtual launching event, the Chairman of the Bar Association, Anar Bagirov, stressed the importance of the cooperation between the Bar association and the Council of Europe and emphasized the great interest of Azerbaijani lawyers for the Council of Europe HELP courses. He informed that there are currently more than 2000 lawyers, members of the Bar Association. The Bar Association had successfully started the initial training for more than 100 newly admitted lawyers despite the challenges related to the COVID – 19 pandemic. Welcoming the participants to the HELP course, the Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Baku, Kyrylo Boicheniuk, stressed the role of the lawyers in protecting human rights and pointed out to the timeliness of such a training of lawyers, having in mind the subsidiary character of the ECHR. Council of Europe Project Manager, Mahir Mushteidzada, highlighted a unique role of the HELP Programme in uniform application of the ECHR by European legal professionals, referred to the results of the previous Council of Europe actions in Azerbaijan that helped to create a sustainable trainer capacity about the ECHR and case-law of the ECtHR.

Ilkin Rajabov, Judge of the Baku Administrative Court and former seconded official to the Registry of the ECtHR, HELP national tutor, introduced the participants to the European Convention on Human Rights. Sadiq Baghirov, lawyer and HELP national tutor, discussed the position of the ECHR in the national legal order. Then the two tutors who will facilitate this group provided the practical information concerning the course implementation on the HELP online platform.

The launching event was moderated by Orkhan Babayev, Head of the Training centre for lawyers. A brief introduction to the Council of Europe HELP Programme was made by Ana Medarska-Lazova, Deputy Head of HELP Unit, Council of Europe.

The course will be implemented in the upcoming two months. Successful participants will be jointly certified by the Bar Association and the Council of Europe HELP Programme.

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The Council of Europe HELP course on Introduction to the ECHR and the ECtHR is freely accessible for self-learning, in 20 different language versions available on the HELP online platform.

It comprises of 3 substantive modules on: