The European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) courses on “Refugee and Migrant Children”, “Child Friendly Justice” and “Asylum and European Convention on Human Rights” were launched online on 9 June in co-operation with the Ministry of Family and Social Services of Turkey (Ministry), under the joint European Union/Council of Europe action on “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”.

The online event brought together 176 participants from different professions such as lawyers, teachers, social workers and psychologists with the representatives of Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, the Ministry, the trainers of the course and the action team.

In their opening speeches both the Director General of Child Services at the Ministry, Zeliha Sağlam, and the Head of Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, Cristian Urse, highlighted the importance of these courses for participants, having in mind the high number of refugee and migrant children in Turkey and emphasised their gratitude for the fruitful co-operation initiative between two institutions.

All three courses explain how issues related to their subject areas are addressed in the international and European legal framework and provides an overview of the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It is expected that the participants in these courses will improve their knowledge and skills on the existing standards in these areas and will be applying them in their daily work.

The courses were organised within the framework of the action “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”, part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.