Opening speech by Philippe Boillat Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Welcoming address during the kick-off event of the project “HELP in Russia”

Moscow, Russian State University of Justice, Wednesday 22 April 2015

I am delighted to be here today for the official launch of the European Programme on Human Rights Education (HELP) in the Russian Federation.

I would like to begin by thanking Rector Valentin Erchov and the Russian State University of Justice (RSUJ) for being our partner in this exercise and hosting this launching event. The Council of Europe is also grateful to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and its President, Mr Lebedev, for their support of this timely initiative. By joining the HELP Network the University of Justice takes on a crucial role in shaping both initial and in-service training of Russian legal professionals. And so does the Federal Chamber of Lawyers, also a member of the HELP Network, in regard to the professional training of Russian lawyers.

Let me recall the main reason why the HELP Programme is so important and I would even say unique. It is to date the only genuine PAN-European Programme of legal education based on a pan-European Network composed of national training institutions and bar associations of the 47 member States of the Council of Europe. It has become a comprehensive platform for all training endeavours undertaken by our Organisation not only on the European Convention on Human Rights but far beyond.

You will therefore not be surprised that HELP enjoys increasing political support by the Council of Europe. Ministers of Justice of 47 member States called for the strengthening of the Programme a month ago. This call goes hand in hand with the support for the programme in our member States. Russia is not an exception. As you may be aware, the HELP Programme was recently agreed upon as one of the priorities for cooperation between Russia and the Council of Europe. We are most grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for their assistance and support in our co-operation activities on matters of common concern.

It is nevertheless very important to underline that the HELP Programme is not intended to replace the efforts of legal training institutions in each member State. It is well placed, however, to provide support through the development of modern and effective training curricula that encompass or even merge the international and the domestic legal materials including the relevant case law. HELP puts at the disposal of the domestic training institutions the tools that are adapted to the needs of the legal professions in a given area of law. Furthermore, HELP promotes the “training of trainers” who will teach the courses on the basis of such materials.

I would like to commend the Justice University and the Federal Chamber of Lawyers for having appointed trainers to attend the last HELP training of trainers in Strasbourg. I have no doubt that the courses on Russian law and the Convention we develop with the Justice University will appear attractive to other academic and training institutions some of which are represented here today. I take this opportunity to wish you a warm welcome to our event and to reaffirm our openness to collaborate closely with you with a view to supporting your training activities. I encourage you to fully exploit the HELP resources in your activities.

In the last few years, HELP has been getting stronger and has widened its scope, even if initially, the programme was only supposed to include mainly those areas covered by the European Convention on Human Rights, it is now obvious that HELP goes far beyond that.

Many thematic developments now lead the HELP Programme to also cover cross-cutting themes which other entities of the Council of Europe deal with, such as child-friendly justice, social rights, family law, alternative measures to detention, asylum, and anti-discrimination issues. Courses have been developed in these areas and launched in many of the member States.

The initiative, which we are launching today, will give the opportunity to adapt such existing courses to the Russian legal order and the specific needs of Russian legal professionals. What is more, we are developing new courses which will be tailor-made to the needs identified by our Russian partners. To mention only one of the highlights, a course on admissibility of evidence during criminal proceedings will be developed in 2015, targeted at the current needs of Russian judges and prosecutors.

We all share the same vision. The HELP Programme offers a unique platform to ensure legal professionals are able to uphold the challenge of better protecting constitutional and conventional rights at home and thus minimising the number of cases that reach the Strasbourg Court. HELP also supports legal professionals in facing the key challenge of keeping abreast of the quickly expanding and evolving domestic and international case law.

As to the future, it is my wish that the members of the HELP Network will develop strong ownership over the main HELP products. This will mean that the Justice University, the Federal Chamber of Lawyers and all other actors involved in the training of legal professionals in Russia will be the ones developing the HELP curricula and adapting them immediately according to their needs. It is also for that reason that HELP tools and guidelines will be put at the disposal of the Network to support them in providing high quality legal training.

I would like to thank the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Trust Fund for its generous support to the HELP Programme. The Trust Fund was convinced about the importance of strengthening HELP in Russia and I am sure that the concrete outcomes of this project will prove that it is good value for money.

In conclusion, I would like to commend once again the Justice University for hosting this event and thank them for their openness to the ongoing co-operation with the Council of Europe to the benefit of the Russian legal society.

Thank you!