On January 21 -22 in Kyiv, the Council of Europe, together with the Coordination Center for Legal Aid Provision, held a two-day seminar for staff of legal clubs "PRAVOKATOR" on the topic of "Criminal justice sector and mechanisms for the protection of human rights". The event took place on the site of the Kyiv club, which opened its doors in December 2018, within the framework of the Council of Europe project "Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine", funded by the Government of Denmark.

There are currently five legal clubs "PRAVOKATOR" in the Ukrainian free legal aid system (FLA) - in Odesa, Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Kyiv. They serve as interregional platforms for partnering and networking of lawyers, civil society and the general public.

"The network of legal clubs "PRAVOKATOR” is a catalyst for making changes in the legal system of Ukraine with a very ambitious goal - to develop legal communities, to give them the opportunity to know, understand and use all the best international experience that exists at the moment in Ukraine in order for the legal mechanisms in our country to be effective, people to be protected, and the existing systematic legal problems to be resolved. We are PRAVOcating the representatives of the legal system and the public to apply the rights in their everyday life", - said the head of the Kyiv legal club Vitaliy Okhrimenko.

Given the important role which legal clubs “PRAVOKATOR" play in institutionalizing education within the FLA system, the seminar aimed at deepening staff’s knowledge of the criminal justice sector and human rights protection mechanisms.

"Now in the legal system of Ukraine, we can observe a significant impetus in the attempt to implement international standards and rules. Accordingly, such initiatives as legal clubs "PRAVOKATOR" are very valuable and necessary, as they inform and push the legal system and its subjects to move in this direction. Therefore, for the participants of the event, the emphasis was not on the theoretical aspects of legal standards that everyone can learn on their own, but on the practical side - discussion and definition of the relationship between the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the national legal system in order to understand how we can apply international experience in our daily work, "explains Irina Kushnir, Council of Europe consultant and Program Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Human Rights NGO.

In the course of the seminar, the participants were familiarized with the main provisions and role of international treaties and mechanisms - the European Convention on Human Rights and case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe and UN Conventions on the Prevention of Torture and case law of the relevant committees, the Istanbul Protocol, etc. - for the Ukrainian legal system and in particular the FLA. Additionally, on the first day of the seminar, legal club staff discussed the main criminal justice sector actors and the areas of cooperation in this sector to strengthen the protection of human rights and improve the efficiency of justice.

 “It’s the first time that I am taking part in the seminar on the criminal justice sector, therefore I am very grateful for it. As a lawyer, it was very interesting for me to get acquainted with the cases that were presented to us by the speakers and to explore more deeply the legal norms and practices, to learn more about the criminal process. For our partners and participants of the events - this is the main area of work, therefore it is very important for us to be on the same page with them", - says the employee of one of the legal clubs Katerina Seredenko.

On the second day, Sergei Burov, Director of the "Educational Human Rights House in Chernigov", informed the participants about the methods of collecting information about the needs of the target audience and told about the actual issues of the formation of training programs and the exchange of experience.

“The session I led was about why and how to collect information about the needs of professional groups, through which we can influence the resolution of problem issues. We talked with the participants about how to plan club activities when you understand that there is a problem in the legal system which needs to be resolved. And although this is my first experience with PRAVOKATOR, after communicating with the seminar participants, I can say that the idea of creating a network of legal clubs will really contribute to a serious change in the legal sector”, said the expert on his session.

At the end of the event, a discussion took place on the potential follow-up activities within the legal clubs, in particular on the areas of qualification improvement in the FLA system. In 2018, the legal clubs "PRAVOKATOR" held 250 events for almost 6,000 participants of the FLA system of people who form the principles, values, and approaches of the justice system in Ukraine. In 2019, the clubs also have ambitious plans - not to lose the pace and become a platform that is trusted and to create a product for the society and the State as a whole. And the two days of the seminar were aimed at ensuring that legal club staff finds new professional approaches to becoming even better in their work.