Strengthening the capacity of lawyers and Human Rights Defenders

This is the Georgian component of a regional programme running from January 2013 through June 2015.

Objectives of the Programme

The programme aims to develop national capacities for effective human rights protection by increasing knowledge and skills on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Revised European Social Charter (RESC).

More specifically, it aims

to enable lawyers and human rights defenders in the partner countries to successfully litigate cases based on the ECHR and on the RESC, in proceedings before national courts, as well as before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of well-substantiated claims and
to avoid submission to the ECtHR of manifestly unfounded or inadmissible claims.

Activities

Trainings and seminars are organized for lawyers and human rights defenders; Training materials and manuals on human rights are prepared and published and regional conferences for sharing best practices are organized in the framework of the programme

The following activities have been implemented since the launch of the programme:

Desk review of the current lacuna in training programmes.
Preparation, publication and distribution of training programme/curricula and capacity building materials, CoE handbooks on human rights, training modules in national languages.
Regional training-of-trainers (ToT) seminars for national ECHR lawyers' trainers from Bar associations and human rights NGOs.
Cascade training seminars for lawyers and human rights NGOs and legal consultants in the capitals and in the regions.
Quarterly thematic one-day workshops for lawyers and human rights NGOs activists in the capitals and regions
Three 2-day regional conferences for sharing the best practices (2 conferences in participating countries + one conference in Strasbourg).
Setting-up of a regional forum on the HELP website, to be used as a regional exchange platform between lawyers and human rights defenders.
Drafting of country-specific guidelines on the use of domestic remedies in anti-discrimination cases.
Translation and dissemination of the handbook on European case law on non-discrimination produced by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and the ECtHR into the national languages of the partner countries.Two-day moot court (ECtHR model) for 24 participants from the partner countries.

programme news

Back The Moot Court Competition

A moot court competition was organised for lawyers and human rights defenders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine was held in Strasbourg in the framework of the CoE and EU Joint Programme “Strengthening the capacity of lawyers and human rights defenders for domestic application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and of the Revised European Social Charter (RESC)”,.

The three lawyers from Georgia who participated in the international round of the Moot Court were chosen through a national round, by their written submissions. The Competition took place on 17-19 June 2015 at the European Youth Centre with 18 participants in total from the six countries.

The participants were divided into six mixed international teams and pleaded both as the Applicant and as the Government in the simulation of the European Court of Human Rights process before a jury consisting of the lawyers of the ECtHR and other experts of the CoE. The case was prepared by the European Human Rights Association and dealt with minority rights, notably concerning alleged violations of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or in its protocols. Even though the case was fictional, the core of this case was based on real cases that happened in different countries. The jury panels for the preliminary rounds were composed of three judges, who decided the winner from the two competing teams participating in the final round.