Through the partnership between the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and the Centre for Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution of Montenegro, the launching of the Montenegrin versions of the HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) courses dealing with anti-discrimination issues, took place in Podgorica and online on 22 September.

The presentation included speakers from the European Union, the Council of Europe and key Montenegrin institutions dealing with human rights and non-discrimination, such as the Ministry for Justice, Human and Minority Rights as well as the Ombudsperson Office, with the Judicial Training Centre as the leading institution in charge for trainings for magistrates in the country.

Ivana Jelic, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, addressed the audience presenting the latest developments in the field of discrimination in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case-law; while Sinisa Bjekovic, Ombudsperson of Montenegro and national member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, stressed the importance of the decisions of the Ombudsperson Office as national equality body, in the development of the judicial case law in the field of discrimination.

National HELP trainers provided more details to the 51 enrolled participants, on the way the online course will be implemented. The HELP online courses on anti-discrimination as well as hate crime and hate speech will be completed as first, by the end of 2021, while the courses on Fight against racism, xenophobia and homophobia will follow afterwards.

The training for legal and human rights professionals in Montenegro is an initiative of the actions on “Promotion of diversity and equality in Montenegro” and “HELP in the Western Balkans”, that are part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.