On December 7, 2022, the introductory HELP online seminar of the course “Labour rights as human rights” was held within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Continued support to promoting social human rights in Ukraine”, where about 30 students took part, including university lecturers, scientists, lawyers, judges and human rights defenders who work in the field of social rights.

“About 150 participants registered for the course, but we had to choose only 30 people. We hope that there will be an opportunity to organise training for other registered persons in the new year. Such an interest to the course shows that the issue of protecting social rights in Ukraine is really timely,” said Siuzanna Mnatsakanian, Senior Project Officer of the Council of Europe Project “Continued support to promoting social human rights in Ukraine”.

The course covers key concepts, the European system of protection of labour rights (stemming from the CoE and the EU, the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as well as the decisions of the European Committee for Social Rights (ECSR).

Participants will complete 9 modules and will also have the opportunity to participate in introductory and final seminars to share expectations, experiences and impressions of the course. Participants will also have access to Ukrainian adaptation materials.

In particular, the modules cover the following topics:

• the right to work;
• working time and rest periods;
• fair remuneration and protection of wages;
• termination of labour relations;
• equality and non-discrimination;
• collective labour rights;
• Occupational safety and health;
• human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

The members of the group are people who have significant experience in the field of labour law, but would like to deepen their knowledge, establish professional connections, exchange experience with colleagues, learn about new forms of presenting educational materials.

Olena Sviatun, certified HELP tutor, PhD, Associate Professor, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of International Relations, emphasized: “I call on the participants to be active and provide their feedback and recommendations for improving the course, because students will take this course later, which are the future of Ukraine in the development of social policy in line with the best international standards.”

“We hope that this course will contribute to the improvement of the Ukrainian labour legislation, which has recently been in a state of "permanent" reform. In particular, as regards the adaptation of Ukrainian legislative norms to the EU,  Council of Europe and  International Labour Organization standards,” noted Alla Fedorova, certified HELP tutor, PhD, Associate Professor, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of International Relations.

The Council of Europe Project “Continued support to promoting social human rights in Ukraine” is implemented by the Office of the Council of Europe in Ukraine within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018-2022. The project aims to strengthen the sustainability of democracy in Ukraine through the expansion of social rights in accordance with European standards.

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