The first launching was opened by the General Secretary of the Human Rights Institute of the Paris Bar Council, Christophe Pettiti. Laurence Lwoff, head the Council of Europe Bioethics Unit presented the ‘Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine’ focused on the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine. Her colleague Katrin Uerpmann presented landmark cases of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The national tutor in charge of the moderation online is Laurence Azoux Bacrie, a bioethics expert herself.

The course ‘Fight against racism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia’ was launched for two groups of lawyers selected by the LICRA (Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme) and the CNB (Conseil National de Bareaux). Participants to this double kick-off meeting were greeted by the president of CNB’s Equality Commision, Clotilde Lepetit, who encouraged the audience to uphold the European system of anti-discrimination and develop a common European language. LICRA’s President of the  Law Commission, Sabrina Goldman, highlighted LICRA’s work and its more than 100 volunteer lawyers as a force to advance legislation and praised the fact that European jurisprudence –often more protective than national laws - is more and more invoked by lawyers.

Paul Bernard Delaroche, Head of the department ‘Training for the promotion of equality and access to rights’ from the Ombudsperson Institution (Défenseur de droits) , encouraged lawyers to make more and better use of his institution, in spite of some challenges. Denis Roth-Fichet from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance presented the course.

The course will be moderated on  line by Charlotte Lefranc for LICRA lawyers. Josquin Legrand, de la

The course will be moderated on line by Charlotte Lefranc for LICRA lawyers. Josquin Legrand,  from DBF (Délégation des Barreaux de France) and Loredana Tassone will co-tutor the course for CNB lawyers.

In both kick-offs, the 'HELP in the 28' Programme was presented including its methodology. Funded by the EU, it is actually the largest training project within the EU on fundamental rights for judges, prosecutors and lawyers. In this regard, both courses launched in France combine the EU and CoE legal frameworks, presenting them in a practical and interactive way to facilitate their application in the daily work of legal professionals.  

Once piloted, both courses -in French and adapted to the French legal order- will be publicly available on line. In the meantime, the English versions are already accessible at this website, where you can also watch videos presenting the courses.