The European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) course on Asylum and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was launched online on 7 May in cooperation with the Edirne Bar Association of Turkey, under the Action on “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”. The online event brought together 48 lawyers with representatives of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, the trainers of the course and the Action team.

In their opening speeches both the president of the Edirne Bar Association, Mr Alper Pinar, and the Head of Ankara Programme Office of the Council of Europe, Mr Cristian Urse, highlighted the importance of the course for lawyers having in mind the high number of migrants in Turkey.

Representative of the Action, Mr. Çağlar Kiran, gave a general overview of the courses offered within the Action on the HELP online platform. It was also announced that, besides the “Asylum and ECHR” course and in cooperation with the Edirne Bar Association, additional five virtual training sessions are to be organised for lawyers, namely on the courses “Alternatives to Immigration Detention”, “Refugee and Migrant Children”, “Child Friendly Justice”, “CPT Standards” and “Prohibition of Ill-Treatment”.

Ms Gizem Üliç Karaağaçli, former lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, attended the event as a guest speaker and presented the legal framework and relevant case-law of the Court.

The trainer of the HELP course, Dr Meltem İneli Ciğer presented the HELP platform and its content, demonstrated how to access and effectively use it, and how to interact with the trainer and other participants in the virtual training lesson. She also informed the participants that they would receive a HELP certificate upon successful completion of the course.

The HELP Course on “Asylum and ECHR” covers the key provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the related case-law of the European Court of Human Rights which are of particular relevance for asylum-seekers and refugees. It is expected to improve legal professionals´ knowledge of Turkish law and practice as well as the case-law of the European Court in relation to protection of asylum-seekers.

The course was organised within the framework of the Action “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”, part of the European Union/Council of Europe collaboration “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.