On 16 December 2019, the Council of Europe HELP course on Key Human Rights Principles in Biomedicine (Bioethics) was launched for a group of 35 judges, prosecutors, lawyers and doctors.
The launching event was organised in cooperation with and in the premises of the Latvian Judicial Training Centre. The participants to the event were welcomed by Solvita Kalnina-Caune, Director of the Centre.
Following the presentation of the HELP Programme, the national tutor of the course for Latvia, Ronalds Rozkalns, presented examples of recent interesting cases from the Latvian context on topics related to biomedicine. Ronalds Rozkalns is both a legal and health professional, and one of the authors of the model HELP course on Bioethics in English.
The work of the Council of Europe in the area of human rights and biomedicine, with a focus on the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention), was also presented briefly.
Dr Vents Silis, Latvian delegate to the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics (DH BIO) and Chair of the Central Medical Ethics Committee of Latvia, gave an illuminating presentation on the philosophical aspects of the Oviedo Convention.
The course will be implemented until March 2020. The mixed composition of both health and legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors and lawyers, will provide an excellent forum for enhancing the dialogue and exchanges between these two categories of professionals who are in the first line of protection of human rights of individuals in the sphere of biomedicine.
The successful participants will be certified jointly by the Council of Europe and Latvian Judicial Training Centre.
On 17 December a short presentation of the Council of Europe HELP Programme and its work with Universities was held at the premises of the Latvian Judicial Training Centre. It was attended by representatives of the Riga Graduate School of Law, Riga Stradins University, University “Turība” and University of Latvia.
The presentation was aimed to acquaint the law schools with the potential of using the Council of Europe HELP courses as educational materials on human rights related topics for university level students. It was followed by a fruitful discussion and brainstorming session, setting up the potential next steps for the HELP course implementation in Latvian universities.
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