Over 300 judges, lawyers and prosecutors from Moldova are benefiting from HELP (the European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) distance-learning courses to improve their professional knowledge, skills and experience in implementing the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) at the national level.
The HELP distance-learning programme is the main educational platform of the Council of Europe for legal professionals. Its aim is to educate judges, lawyers and prosecutors from 47 member states about human rights standards in Europe. The e-learning platform is available online for free and has a wide variety of courses on different aspects of the Convention and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court).
There are two main types of HELP training resources also available for Moldovan professionals:
•online courses on various human-rights related topics available for everyone;
•“tutored courses” which are only available for selected groups of legal professionals participating in courses moderated by HELP certified tutors followed by certification upon successful completion of the course.
About 70 judges, lawyers and prosecutors have received certificates after successfully completing HELP tutored courses in Moldova.
The course curricula are made by experts to meet participants’ specific training needs and learning pace. According to the HELP methodology, the courses are developed by the Council of Europe and adapted to the national legal order by the national tutors. In Moldova there are 6 certified tutors who can provide HELP trainings and implement HELP training methodology.
On 11 December, two new HELP courses were launched within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Support to criminal justice reforms in the Republic of Moldova” funded by Government of Denmark. First HELP course on “Prohibition of ill-treatment”, in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), was piloted for a group of 35 judges, prosecutors and staff of the Government Agent in front of the Court. Further on, the course on “Pre-trial investigation and the Convention” launched for the second time, in cooperation with the Union of Lawyers of the Republic of Moldova (BAR), now for group of 25 lawyers and trainee lawyers.
Both courses are conducted by Moldovan certified HELP tutors and aim at enhancing the capacities of judges, lawyers and prosecutors in implementing the European Convention on Human Rights in their everyday work.
All HELP courses implemented in Moldova are fully integrated into the training curricula of both NIJ and BAR and are being re-launched by the institutions without further external support.
