On 23 November 2018, in Barcelona, the Secretary General’s Special Representative on migration and refugees, Tomáš Boček and the Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) of the Council of Europe will launch a course on refugee and migrant children. The course is adapted to the Spanish legal context and helps the professionals to apply the existing European and international standards in their daily work with refugee and migrant children. The launch takes place after the Special Representative published a report on Spain in September 2018, where he refers to the situation of unaccompanied children, outlining the situation concerning their accommodation, age-assessment, guardianship and support in transition to adulthood. Four out of the ten recommendations of the report concern refugee and migrant children. One of them is to continue the training of legal professionals on asylum-related matters with a particular focus on the rights of migrant and refugee children by building upon the existing collaboration with the HELP Programme of the Council of Europe. The launch is co-organised with the Spanish Judiciary School and group judges, prosecutors and lawyers.

On 13 November 2018, in London, a HELP tutored online course on Refugee and Migrate Children aimed specifically at UK legal professionals was launched. The aim of this course is to improve the knowledge and skills on the existing European and international standards in the subject, their relevance in the United Kingdom’s legal context, and how to apply them in their daily work. This launch is being supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The course is also going to be launched in Ankara on 30 November 2018, in Thessaloniki on 7 December 2018 and on 10 December in Athens.

The online course covers the following modules: legal framework , child-friendly procedures, alternatives to detention, family reunification, social rights and integration in host societies, guardianship, and age assessment.

It can be accessed online at the HELP online platform clicking here.