The first regional HELP Training-of-Trainers (ToT) for universities was held on 6-7 November 2018 in Belgrade at the premises of the Law Faculty. The event was organised in cooperation with the South East European Law School Network (SEELS) gathering 40 participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.

Given the role of higher legal education institutions in anticipating the difficulties that future legal professionals might face in their daily work, the Training-of-Trainers session aimed to expand the scope of HELP online course. Participants, including representatives from the Judicial Academy of the Republic of Serbia, were introduced to the HELP methodology and enhanced their skills on how to make use of interactive education.

Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Council of Europe Belgrade Office, welcomed participants by highlighting the importance that the Council of Europe gives to university education and the preventive aspect of good training in human rights.

Since the event was organised under the Croatian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Gordan Bakota, mentioned the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights and its implementation. In this view, HELP is instrumental tool creating synergies between the Council of Europe standards and the prerequisite for the accession to the European Union.

The Vice Dean for International cooperation of the Belgrade Faculty of Law, Jelena Lepetić, and the Secretary General of the Centre for SEELS, Neda Zdraveva, mentioned the need for a close cooperation between HELP and the law faculties for the benefit of future legal professionals.

The HELP ToT is organised as a joint initiative between the HELP in the Western Balkans project – funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund - and the Action “Supporting effective remedies and mutual legal assistance” which is being implemented in Serbia as part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe Programme “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey”.