The online HELP course on “Environment and Human Rights in Montenegro” was launched online for more than 30 legal professionals from Montenegro in co-operation with the Centre for Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution in Montenegro

Participants to the launching event were welcomed by Ljiljana Lakić, President of the Executive Board of the Centre, and Jasminka Peruničić Allen, Senior Project Officer of HELP in the Western Balkans action.

During the launching event, Ana Medarska Lazova, Deputy Head of Justice and Human Rights Training Division, Council of Europe, shared an overview of the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme of the Council of Europe and its online platform that includes a catalogue of 40 courses on human rights, including the course on ‘Environment and Human Rights’ contextualised for Montenegrin legal professionals, with the support of the EU and Council of Europe Horizontal Facility II Programme. The course was further presented by the tutors, Sanja Jovanović and Brankica Cmiljanović, experts in the field, and participants were briefly familiarised with the technical aspects of how to join the HELP online platform and the courses available there.

The HELP online course on ‘Environment and Human Rights’ was first published in 2021 and since then is followed by more than 1500 users of the HELP online Platform. It includes 4 modules covering key concepts on ‘Environment and Human Rights’, the human rights-based approach to environmental protection, green human rights in regional human rights systems as well as environmental degradation and corporate accountability. The course is accessible in the HELP Online Platform in English and Serbian for autonomous, self-learning. Other languages will become available soon. Successful users of the self-learning course can print out a HELP ‘statement of accomplishment’ at the end.

This event was organised under the HELP in the Western Balkans action, part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.