The Council of Europe HELP course on Child-friendly justice was officially launched in Chisinau and Bucharest for a group of Moldovan and Romanian legal professionals.
The launching event in Chisinau was organised on 12 April in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, under the Council of Europe Project “Protecting children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in the Republic of Moldova”. The launching event was opened by Diana Scobioala, Director of the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, and William Massolin, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, who both stressed the relevance of the topic for Moldovan legal professionals. Natasha Kravchuk, one of the authors of the course, provided a presentation on key priorities and challenges of a child-friendly justice.
On 19 April 2019 the course was also launched at the Institute of Magistracy of Romania (NIM) for a group of 28 judges and prosecutors. The launch of the course was made possible with the Institute’s financial support. The event was opened by Irina Cambrea, deputy director of the NIM. Corina Voicu, the national tutor and Roxana Rizoiu, member of the HELP Consultative Board, introduced the participants to the topic and animated interesting exchanges with the participants.
The course will be implemented for a group of 30 judges and prosecutors and 4 representatives of the People’s Advocate Office of the Republic of Moldova and 30 participants from Romania. The course will be tutored by Violeta Cojocaru and Corina Voicu, certified HELP tutors for the Republic of Moldova and Romania respectively. Successful participants will be certified jointly by the Council of Europe and the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova and the National Institute of Magistracy, respectively.
A novelty in this course implementation is that the Moldovan and Romanian participants will be able to follow the course jointly on the HELP online platform, in order to encourage cross-border cooperation between the national training institutions and legal professionals in the two countries. Another novelty is that 15 Moldovan law students will also be following the course alongside the experienced legal professionals, in what makes the first course launched for university students in the Republic of Moldova.
The aim of the HELP online course on Child-friendly Justice is to strengthen and harmonise knowledge of the relevant ECHR and other international standards on child-friendly justice for the target group of legal and other professionals working for and with children.
The course is composed of the following nine modules:
- Introduction
- Child-friendly justice
- Non-judicial proceedings
- General elements
- Interaction with children in the judicial system – main challenges
- Interdisciplinarity
- Deprivation of liberty
- Violence against children
- Migration and asylum
The course can be accessed in several languages on the HELP online platform.
HELP course launch on Child-friendly justice at the Institute of Magistracy of Romania. © Council of Europe
