More than 20 Croatian judges and court staff will benefit from the online courses on Asylum and Human Rights developed by the Council of Europe HELP Programme (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) jointly with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office. The launch of the course, held on 22 September in Zagreb, was organized in co-operation with the Croatian Judicial Academy.
The group of participants was welcomed by Nella Popović, Head of International Cooperation and Projects Department, Judicial Academy. Ana-Maria Telbis, Deputy Head of the Justice and Human Rights Training Division at the CoE introduced them to the HELP Programme and the e-learning platform. Laura Caitlin Parker, Protection Officer at the UNHCR Representation in Croatia made a presentation on the national perspectives and challenges related to asylum. The work of the CoE Special Representative on Migration and Refugees and their initiatives related to Croatia were presented by Anne Kaiser, advisor in the CoE SRSG Office. Bojana Nikolin, Head of Section in the CoE Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR focused on the asylum-related ECtHR judgments pending execution before the CoE Committee of Ministers. Tatjana Holjevac from the Croatian Legal Centre made an overview of the challenges in the asylum system in Croatia.
The participants were also introduced to their national course tutors, Lara Barberić, Assistant Agent before the ECtHR and Snježana Horvat-Paliska, judge at the High Administrative Court. They made a presentation of the HELP course on Asylum and Human Rights and of the materials they prepared for the national adaptation of the course.
The course will be implemented until the end of 2023. Successful participants will receive HELP certificates issued in cooperation with the Croatian Judicial Academy, HELP’s national partner in the organisation of the course’s launch and implementation. Implementation of this course is particularly helpful within the context of the execution of ECHR judgment M.H. and Others v. Croatia given that the CoE Committee of Ministers recently encouraged Croatian judges dealing with asylum proceedings to continue with trainings and awareness raising.
When contextualised to the national legislation and practice, HELP courses contribute to address training needs identified by various CoE monitoring mechanisms, including the execution of ECtHR judgments. They also contribute to achieving the objectives set in the EU Judicial Training strategy.
The course is available also for autonomous, self-learning on the HELP e-learning platform, in several languages (among which English and Croatian). Once completed, a user can generate and print out a so-called HELP ‘Statement of Accomplishment’ in proof of the acquired knowledge and skills on the topic.
