The Environment and Human Rights: Council of Europe HELP course launched for EU lawyers in joint event with the CCBE

Retour The Environment and Human Rights: Council of Europe HELP course launched for EU lawyers in joint event with the CCBE

On 10 October 2023, twenty-four lawyers from eighteen EU member states attended the launch of the Council of Europe HELP course the Environment and Human Rights.

The event was held at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (France), in the framework of the EU-CoE project “HELP in the EU III”, funded under the European Union’s Justice Programme (2021-2027). The event was organised by the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE).

The launch began with introductory remarks from Nikolaos Koutkias, Chair of the CCBE Training Committee and Eva Pastrana, Head of the Justice and Human Rights Training Division of the Council of Europe. They welcomed the participants and acknowledged the synergies and long-term collaboration of the Human Rights Education for Legal Programmes (HELP) Programme and the CCBE. They also emphasised the richness of the courses available on the HELP Platform and their contribution to the training of legal professionals across the European Union and beyond.

Several interventions relevant for the topic of the course followed. Jean-Marc Gollier, Chair of the CCBE Environment and Climate Change Committee, talked about relevant practices across bar associations and law societies and about the CCBE’s initial statement on Climate Change. Daniel Pap, Secretary of the CoE CDDH-ENV (Steering Committee for Human Rights - Drafting Group on Human Rights and Environment) and Andrzej Mancewicz from the Office of the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, touched upon the many activities being carried at the CoE level in the field of the environment and human rights field.

They talked about the bodies under which they have direct responsibility, but also about the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee on Social Rights and the Committee of Ministers. They mentioned that a feasibility study on a new Council of Europe instrument on human rights and the environment is currently being prepared; they also addressed the situation of environmental defenders and the implications of the Reykjavik Summit in the field.

Participants also carried out a visit to the European Court of Human Rights, where they were welcomed by Bianca Boji Tahvanainen and Eglantine Leblond, Lawyers within the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. They learned about the functioning of the Court, the journey of the applications submitted before it, as well about the procedural requirements to respect. They also discussed about the case-law related resources made available by the Court in the field of the environment and human rights and were given an introduction to the Court’s Knowledge-Sharing Platform.

During the launch event, the participants also got acquainted with the HELP programme and its e-learning platform, which offers 49 courses on human rights. Furthermore, the group met its HELP tutors, international experts Malgorzata Kwiedacz-Palosz and Grazia Scocca. They talked to the participants about their background and interests and provided some insights into the matters to be approached during the course.

The tutors will provide the participants with support and guidance during the following weeks. After the launch event, all participants have been registered on the dedicated course page and are now ready to start the tutored course. HELP certificates, issued by the Council of Europe and the CCBE, will be accorded to those who successfully complete the course.

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The HELP course on the Environment and Human Rights emphasises that the protection of the environment and the protection of human rights are interconnected: one cannot be achieved without the other, nor at the expense of the other. Life and well-being on our planet are contingent on our collective capacity to guarantee both human rights and a healthy environment to future generations.

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