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Back 2019 HELP Annual Network Conference: HELP celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe

On 4-5 July 2019, the Council of Europe Programme on Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) held its annual Network Conference in Strasbourg, France.

The Conference, which is the biggest plenary meeting of the Council of Europe HELP Network, gathered around 200 representatives of national judicial and prosecutorial schools and Bar associations from throughout Europe and beyond, as well as representatives of the longstanding partners of the HELP Programme: the European Commission, the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the Council of Bar and Law Societies in Europe (CCBE), the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the UNHCR and many other partner institutions/organisations.

The Conference was organised under the auspices of the French Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Greeting the participants to the Conference, Sébastien Potaufeu, Deputy Permanent Representative of the French Republic to the Council of Europe, pointed out to the links between HELP’s work and the priorities of the French Presidency.

In her welcome remarks to the participants of the Conference, Ambassador Meglena Kuneva, Head of the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe, emphasized that the support of the EU comes through the EU’s stable policy vis-à-vis rule of law, democracy and human rights. She underlined the importance of enabling justice professionals to apply correctly EU law, as well as the importance of enhancing mutual trust among them. In her view, HELP is a natural bridge of influencing the common understanding of the rules beyond EU.

Christos Giakoumopoulos, Director General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, reiterated that the European Union is most important institutional partner of the Council of Europe, both at political and cooperation level, and that both institutions are committed to human rights, democracy and rule of law. He underlined the contribution of the HELP Programme and its courses to the protection of human rights in Europe and as a counterbalance of emerging challenges.

In his keynote speech, the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Judge Linos – Alexandre Sicilianos, provided an insight into the evolution of the Court in the 60 years of its existence. Stressing the importance of the effective national implementation of the Convention, Judge Sicilianos emphasized that member States had realised that the HELP Programme is a crucial tool in raising awareness of the Convention.

Olivier Laurent, Director of the French Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM), also a keynote speaker at the Conference, reflecting on the links between the effective national implementation of the Convention and judicial training, pointed out that the ENM integrates the European dimension in all the legal subjects taught. He stressed the importance of reinforcing, through the commitment to the Convention, a joint European judicial identity formed through the 60 years of the work of the European Court of Human Rights.

The achievements of the HELP Programme in the past year were presented by Eva Pastrana, Head of HELP Unit, who revealed that the number of users on the HELP online platform had grown to more than 36.000 users, a 600% growth in only five years. The catalogue of HELP online courses on various human rights topics grew to 34 courses freely available on the HELP platform. The comparative advantage of the HELP courses, namely the fact that they are developed with the internal expertise of the Council of Europe as well as of the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, makes them unique among the many training providers.

The HELP achievements under the regional Projects on HELP in the EU and HELP in the Western Balkans, as well as the HELP activities in the Russian Federation, Turkey and Eastern Partnership countries, were also presented to the participants.

The Conference also served as a forum for presenting the new book "The individual application under the European Convention of Human Right" authored by Judge Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, President of the European Court of Human Rights, and Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, international consultant, HELP Info Point for Greece and HELP Consultative board member.

A prominent place in the Conference agenda was dedicated to the presentations of new HELP courses developed in the last year:

CPT standards - Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and Johan Friestedt, Head of Division, Secretariat of the CPT, Council of Europe
Family Law and Human Rights - Maria Andriani Kostopoulou, HELP Consultative Board member, Coordinator of the Working Group for the course development
Procedural safeguards in criminal proceedings and victims’ rights - Paul Harvey, Barrister, Coordinator of the Working Group for the course development
Radicalisation Prevention and Evidence in Counter-Terrorism Cases - Eva Massa, HELP Radicalisation Prevention Project Coordinator
Updated course on Data Protection and Privacy Rights - Peter Kimpian, Data Protection Unit, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe
HELP course on Access to Justice for Women - Caterina Bolognese, Head of Gender Equality Division, Directorate General of Democracy, Council of Europe

The strong links of the HELP Programme with the other two pillars of the Council of Europe activities (standard-setting and monitoring) were emphasised during the Conference. Nikolaos Sitaropoulos, Head of Division, Department for Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, spoke about the judicial training in light of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and pointed out to examples when States’ actions plans on execution of the judgments referred to the HELP Programme and its courses. Vasileia Pelekou, Chair of the CDDH Drafting Group on the follow-up to the Recommendation Rec(2004)4 and Alfonso De Salas, Secretary of the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) of the Council of Europe, presented the process of modernisation of the Recommendation (2004) 4 on the ECHR in university education and professional training, which served as basis for the existence of the HELP Programme.

Closing the first day of the Conference, Mikhail Lobov, Head of Human Rights Policy and Cooperation Department, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, stressed again the role of the HELP Programme in increase the capacities of national legal professionals to apply European human rights standards domestically, in line with the principle of subsidiarity under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Three Working Groups in the second day of the Conference were dedicated to strengthening regional networking between the HELP Network members and partners. The participants of the Working Group benefitted from the following interventions:

HELP in the EU: Diana Ungureanu, Seconded National Expert, DG Justice, EU and Luca Perilli, Italian School of Magistrates: Evaluation of judicial training
HELP in the Eastern Partnership countries and Russian Federation: Pavlo Pushkar, Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR, Council of Europe; Tamara Shashikhina, European Institute of the MGIMO University, and Jim Murdoch, Glasgow University
HELP in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey: Majda Krsikapa, Judicial Academy of the Republic of Serbia, and Neda Zdraveva, South East Europe Law Schools Network (SEELS)

In his closing remarks of the Conference, Christophe Poirel, Director of Human Rights, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, stressed two key messages: the transversality of the HELP work and the need for mutual support between HELP and the national partner institutions: judiciary schools and Bar associations.

Agenda - Concept note