The Project "HELP (Human Rights Education for Lawyers) for Ukraine, including in times of war" conducted a training for future tutors of HELP courses at the national level. The training was held in a hybrid format at the Council of Europe Office in Kyiv and online on 4 and 5 September 2023 and gathered 35 participants from Ukraine.
In particular, the training was attended by professors from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, National University of Odesa Law Academy, Lviv University of Trade and Economics and other universities.
The training was opened by Eva Pastrana, Head of the Justice and Human Rights Training Division, Directorate General for Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, and Olga Kostenko, International Project Manager of Project “HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) for Ukraine, including during wartime”. The training was conducted by representatives of the HELP Secretariat together with Alla Fedorova, a certified HELP tutor and associate professor of comparative and European law at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
The training was attended by Olesia Otradnova, Director of the Training Centre for Prosecutors of Ukraine, who is also a member of the HELP Consultative Board. Ms. Otradnova appreciated the training: "HELP is a very user-friendly platform in itself. And when this is combined with the high professionalism of the trainer and the excellent organisation, we have a group of inspired and motivated future tutors."
As a result of the training, participants gained an understanding of the HELP Programme and its mission, the role of HELP tutors in delivering HELP courses, and learned how to adapt HELP courses to the national legal system and the needs of the target audience. Participants also learned how to deliver HELP courses online, how to use the HELP e-learning platform and its human rights courses, how to moderate HELP courses and/or use HELP courses as a supplement to their training programmes.
HELP courses effectively complement the curriculum of universities. University teachers can inform students about the available HELP courses and encourage them to take them, as they contain well-structured information on course topics as well as additional resources.
The Project will broaden the cooperation with the universities, in particular the presentations and the launch of the HELP courses are planned, training of trainers sessions for the professors at the educational institutions etc. The Strategy of incorporation of HELP courses in educational process of Ukrainian universities is being developed.
HELP provides free online courses that can be easily accessed by registering on the website. The courses are developed on the basis of the Council of Europe's expertise in its areas of work. The courses are interactive and include case scenarios, tests and other exercises. The full catalogue of courses is available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/help/courses.
The audience of HELP courses in Ukraine is constantly growing, with the number of users of the HELP Platform increasing from 6,472 in December 2022 to 9,419 in September 2023, which ranked Ukraine 4th according to the number of users. 33 courses on the HELP Platform are available in Ukrainian. The most popular courses in Ukrainian are "Introduction to the ECHR and the ECtHR", "Admissibility criteria", "Asylum and human rights", "Internal displacement", "International cooperation in criminal matters", "Labour rights and human rights".
