Over 60 legal professionals of different professional background have enrolled in the HELP course on Ethics for judges, prosecutors and lawyers during the online event held on 13 October 2023. The course will be implemented for the first time in Albania in the local language. It was translated and adapted with the support of the project HELP in the Western Balkans funded by Human Rights Trust Fund.

The group of participants coming both from the School of Magistrates and the Chamber of Advocates were welcomed by representatives of two institutions, HELP Focal and Info Points and certified HELP tutors, Mirela Bogdani and Rezarta Abdiu. The process of the creation of the course and its original contents was presented by Ana-Maria Telbis, Deputy Head of Justice and Human Rights Training Division, and the HELP unique methodology and the project HELP in the Western Balkans was presented by Jasminka Perunicic Allen, Project Coordinator.

The participants embarked into a lively discussion with their tutors, as they were coming from different legal backgrounds and had diverse opinions on the topic and its domestic implementation. They are expected to attend the course in the next four weeks and continue to share their views on the HELP platform where this course is placed.

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The course has been developed in 2020-21 by the Council of Europe HELP Programme under the EU-CoE “HELP in the EU II” project, in cooperation with several Council of Europe entities/services such as the Secretariats of the Venice Commission, the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and the Consultative Councils of European Judges and Prosecutors (CCJE and CCPE) as well as the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights.

The course on Ethics for judges, prosecutors and lawyers is freely available in self-learning format on the COE HELP e-learning platform. The overall length of the online course is approximatively nine hours and those who complete it online can obtain an electronic ‘Statement of accomplishment’.