In 2017, four new courses where developed by HELP, in collaboration with the relevant Council of Europe entities and departments: Property Rights and the ECHR, Reasoning of Criminal Judgments, Child-friendly Justice, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. I presented the latter in an inter-committee meeting at the European Parliament. Three other HELP courses were finalised and made available and free in the HELP online platform: International Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Trafficking in Human Beings and Fight against Ill-treatment. The four courses produced under EU-funded “HELP in the 28” and the Asylum one where updated in March 2017:
All HELP courses are available for free in English and, depending on the course in other languages, in the HELP e-learning platform at http://help.elearning.ext.coe.int/
New courses are under development, on Bioethics, on Refugee and Migrant Children (in collaboration with the team of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for migration) and on Human Rights and Sports. In 2018 we will start developing, thanks to EU funding, key courses on Procedural Safeguards in Criminal Cases and Victims’ rights, building on substantive work and contributions from the Council of Europe to the package of EU-adopted Directives in this regard.
More than 2.500 legal professionals saw their human rights capacities increased after successfully passing HELP courses organised with Judiciary schools and Bar associations thanks to regional projects: EU-funded ‘HELP in the 28’, ‘HELP in the Western Balkans and Turkey’ and ‘HELP in Russia’ (the two latter with HRTF funding). By the end of 2017, the projects HELP in the EU and in in the Western Balkans were renewed and a new one started with the Turkish Directorate General for Migration Management, which will result in increased capacities on human rights standards of individuals and national training institutions across the European continent. In October, a new project to improve the Criminal Justice Response against Radicalisation leading to extreme violence and terrorism started, with support from the EU: ‘HELP Radicalisation Prevention’ which will result in a new HELP course on the topic, complemented with a module on collection and use of evidence in counter-terrorism cases.
The presentation of HELP to senior officials from the South Mediterranean region in November 2017 will pave the way for the adaptation and launch of HELP courses on human rights under future European Union-Council of Europe interventions at regional level as well as in Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan.
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