The HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence was launched for Macedonian lawyers in the framework of the "HELP in the Western Balkans" project, funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund.

The launching event was opened by Ljubomir Mihajlovski, President of the Macedonian Bar Association and Ana Zec, Head of Operations for the Council of Europe office in Skopje.

Participants could then benefit from presentations from Anca Ciupa from the WAVE Network and co-ordinator of the working group that developed the HELP violence against women and domestic violence, as well as Jelena Ristikj and Aleksandra Stojanovska Tasevska, Attorneys at Law. These presentations addressed the challenges in dealing with cases concerning violence against women and domestic violence from the lawyer’s perspective and legal developments in the area of violence against women and domestic violence at the European and national level. 

The Macedonian version of the course will be implemented for a selected group of 60 participants from April to June 2019. It will be moderated by Jelena Ristikj and Aleksandra Stojanovska Tasevska, certified HELP national tutors, who have also developed the national version of the course. 

After the course is implemented for the initial group of lawyers, the Macedonian version will become publicly available on the HELP online platform.  

Moreover, a certificate ceremony award was organised for the participants in the first HELP course on Violence against women and domestic violence who successfully completed the course.

The HELP course on Violence against women and domestic violence is composed of the following substantive modules: 

1. Understanding violence against women and domestic violence 
2. International and European Legal Framework 
3. Overcoming barriers / access to Justice 
4. Criminal Justice Response I – Investigation and pre-trial 
5. Criminal Justice Response II – Trial and sentencing 
6. Civil Justice Response 
7. Alternative Dispute Resolution 

It is currently available on the HELP online platform in Armenian, Bosnian, English, Georgian, Montenegrin, Russian, Slovenian and Ukrainian.