Over 30 legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors and lawyers with training experience from several EU member states gathered online for a HELP training of trainers (ToT) session organised on 17-18 September 2020. They were joined by eight participants from non-EU member states involved in training future HELP courses across Europe.

The HELP ToT session was organised under the framework of the European Union-Council of Europe funded project "HELP in the EU II", under which several launch events for HELP courses will be organised.

The participants got familiarised with the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme of the Council of Europe and its online platform containing over 35 online courses.

The event aimed at equipping them with the necessary practical skills to effectively implement HELP online tutored courses in their countries of origin.

Following the general presentation on the Council of Europe HELP Programme and the basics of the HELP training methodology, the participants were introduced to the practical information on effectively fulfilling all functions of a HELP tutor and on the effective use the HELP online training platform, hosting all HELP online courses. The participants also exchanged on the practical aspects concerning the role of the national HELP tutor and were presented the practical materials and resources developed by the European Court of Human Rights, including a detailed presentation on how to use the HUDOC database of European Court of Human Rights case-law.

The participants who have taken part in this training session and successfully complete their assignment will become HELP certified trainers, allowing them to use the resources and the platform for tutoring HELP courses. They will be added to the pool of HELP certified trainers, publicly available on the HELP website. The ToT session comes to consolidate a rich network of HELP certified tutors in EU countries and thus contributes to the enhancement of European Human Rights standards in the EU and the use of HELP courses to train legal professionals across the EU member states. It also builds up on HELP’s previous EU funded projects, as some of the participants to the ToT session are former participants who have successfully completed HELP courses organised under previous projects.

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