The Council of Europe HELP Programme continues supporting the Azerbaijani Justice Academy by increasing the knowledge and skills of judges, prosecutors and lawyers on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The HELP online course on Access to Justice for Women was launched for a mixed group of 35 Azerbaijani judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Encompassing women’s rights and gender equality standards and best practices, the course addresses the concept of access to justice, international and European framework, discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender, gender stereotyping, practical guidance to improve access to justice, gender-sensitive approach to the practice of law.

The online launching event was opened by Zoltan Hernyes, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Baku.

Michael Fenn, Head of Political Section at UK Embassy in Azerbaijan, Elchin Khalafov, Rector of the Justice Academy of Azerbaijan and Maryam Haji-Ismayilova, International Aid and Cooperation Officer at EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, also welcomed the participants. The course participants could also benefit from intervention from Anca Sandescu, Project Manager at CoE Gender Equality Division.

The course will be tutored by Gunel Sadigova, HELP national tutor.

Following the completion of the course, the participants are expected to apply in their daily work a gender-sensitive approach based on the understanding of the legal and other barriers in accessing justice for women.

The Access to Justice for Women course was launched as a second edition, following the successful launch in 2021 under the EU-CoE joint Partnership for Good Governance project “Strengthening Access to Justice for Women Victims of Violence in the Six Eastern Partnership Countries”, jointly by the Gender Equality Division and the HELP Programme of the Council of Europe.

The course will be implemented until the end of March 2022. Successful participants will be certified jointly by the Council of Europe and the Azerbaijani Justice Academy.

This activity was organised under the project “HELP implementing the ECHR in Eastern Partnership countries”, funded by the United Kingdom and implemented by the Council of Europe. It will be followed by a series of HELP course launches in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.