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Back Four HELP events held in the Republic of Moldova

© National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova

The excellent cooperation of the European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) of the Council of Europe with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) of the Republic of Moldova, as well as with the Moldovan Union of Lawyers, within the framework of the project "Support to Criminal Justice Reforms" implemented by the Council of Europe, successfully continued with four HELP events organized in the beginning of February.

Launch of the HELP course on International Cooperation on Criminal Matters

On 5 February 2018, the HELP course was launched for a group of judges and prosecutors, including the Head of the Department on International Legal Cooperation and European Integration in the General Prosecution Office and all the prosecutors from that Department. The course will be tutored by Alexandra Nica, Head of the Training and Research Department of the NIJ and HELP national tutor, and Violeta Cojocaru, a professor at the Moldova State University. It will be implemented until 18 March 2018. The successful participants will obtain credits under the continuous training curriculum of the NIJ.

The event was opened by the Director of the NIJ, Diana Scobioală. She stressed that this was the fourth HELP course launched with the NIJ, following the course on Introduction to the European Convention (the Convention) on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, on Pre-trial Investigation and the Convention and on Prohibition of Ill-treatment, which have been since included in the training curriculum of the NIJ for initial or continuous training.

Launch of the course on Prohibition of Ill-treatment for Moldovan lawyers

On the same day, the HELP course on Prohibition of Ill-treatment was launched for the second time in the Republic of Moldova, this time in cooperation with the Moldovan Union of Lawyers for a group of 20 lawyers and trainee-lawyers. The course will be tutored by Vadim Vieru, lawyer and HELP national tutor, and will be implemented until 18 March 2018.

Emanoil Ploșnița, President of the Union of Lawyers of the Republic of Moldova, addressed the participants of this event, which was co-moderated by Vladimir Palamarciuc, HELP Info Point for the Republic of Moldova.

The event served also as an occasion to certify the 22 successful participants of the HELP course on Pre-trial investigation for Moldovan lawyers, implemented in December 2017 and January 2018.

HELP Training-of-trainers (ToT) session

On 6 and 7 February 2018, a HELP ToT session was held in cooperation with the NIJ, to equip national human rights experts with the necessary skills to implement future HELP courses in the Republic of Moldova.

The group of participants included judges, prosecutors, lawyers, the Government’s Agent before the European Court of Human Rights, as well as representatives of the Equality Council and the Ombudsman’s Office and civil society representatives.

The ToT session focused on the HELP Methodology and practical use of the HELP online platform. Participants who successfully complete the assignments following the ToT session will be certified as trainers of the HELP Programme.

Certification event for the course on Prohibition of Ill-treatment

On 6 February 2018, the Council of Europe and the NIJ jointly certified the successful participants of the course on Prohibition of Ill-treatment implemented with the NIJ between 11 December 2017 and 3 February 2018. The course was implemented for a group of 36 judges, prosecutors and staff members of the Government’s Agent before the ECtHR, out of which 28 successfully completed the course. The participants conveyed their satisfaction from the structure and content of the course and its very successful national adaptation and expressed their interest to take future HELP online courses.

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