On 13 October 2021, an international group of 40 legal professionals from 19 countries attended the launch of the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme course on The Environment and Human Rights.

In her opening remarks Eva Pastrana, Head of the Justice and Human Rights Division, welcomed the participants and stressed the importance and contemporary relevance of this topic and applauded their motivation in pursing this course.

The launch event included a thematic session on the recent caselaw of the European Court of Human Rights and the environment, provided by Natalia Kobylarz, Senior Lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights.  Showing the nexus between human rights and environment, she raised the need of fair balance, between enjoyment of individual and corporate rights, and protection of the environment as public interest. Amaya Ubeda, Senior legal officer, Department of the European Social Charter, provided a detailed look at the scope, monitoring mechanisms and jurisprudence of the European Social Charter and its Committee in connection to environmental issues.

Eoghan Kelly, Programme Coordinator at the Bern Convention, gave the participants an overview of a number of international instruments of the Council of Europe relevant to environmental topics, and Tigran Karapetyan, Head of Transversal Challenges and Multilateral Projects Task Force, presented the future envisioned cooperation activities and initiatives of the Council of Europe

The course tutor and author, Grazia Scocca, introduced the course and outlined its adaptation for the interests of the international group. Participants were informed about the course format and its content, and they took part in a tour de table to share their backgrounds and learning expectations.

Participants had the chance to share their background, experience, and interest in the Environment and Human Rights through a round table, proving the expertise present in the Council of Europe member states and the growing interests of the younger generation of legal professionals on becoming more acquainted and better defenders on the Environment, a topic of escalating relevance in today’s society.

The whole event was moderated by Douglas Maxwell, member of the HELP team, who also explained the functioning of the HELP platform and its interactive online course on The Environment and Human Rights.

The free HELP online course, also available to the public in self-learning, addresses the legal frameworks and practical approaches that will support legal practitioners and others in understanding the connections between human rights and the environment, in particular how to apply a human-rights based approach to environmental protection. Council of Europe HELP courses are important to understand the legal standards and the frameworks in place and to ensure their application both at domestic and supranational level.  

Over the next 8 weeks the participants will follow the online course through the HELP e-learning platform. Those who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate from the HELP Programme of the Council of Europe.