The launch of the course builds on the conclusions of the European Seminar organised jointly with the Spanish Judiciary School last July, when around 60 legal practitioners from Europe gathered to raise awareness and discuss legal remedies to fight these serious forms of intolerance. 

The HELP in the 28 course was opened by the Director of the Judiciary School, Gema Conde, who highlighted the fruitful collaboration with HELP to a mixed audience of over 30 judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Though most participants worked in the field of criminal law, there were also judges from labour, family, and prison supervision courts. Most of them had some exposure or professional links to discrimination abuses but very few had e-learning experience.

Carmen Morte, from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), highlighted the most relevant and recent cases of the ECtHR and gave some hints on learning resources such as factsheets and the ECtHR guides.

HELP Focal point in Spain and Constitutional professor, Rafael Bustos gave an interactive session on hate speech, reminding participants of the need in democracy of protection views and expressions which do not necessarily coincide with those of the majority. 

Judge Fernando Grande Marlaska, one of the 20 members (“vocales”) of the General Council of the Judiciary and founder of the Spanish Inter-institutional Commission against racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, stressed the need for Spanish legal professionals to enhance their awareness and skills when they face discrimination cases and the necessity to implement nationally the European standards provided by the CoE and EU legislation.

Apart from the HELP in the 28 Programme and its methodology, the national tutor and School deputy director, Jorge Jimenez, made a practical session on the Spanish version of the course, which will be open to the public at large after the closure session in February 2017.

The course has been developed within the “HELP in the 28,” a Programme implemented by the Council of Europe using its HELP methodology and funded by the EU. ‘HELP in the 28’ is actually the largest training project within the EU on fundamental rights for judges, prosecutors and lawyers. The course in Spanish will be available to the public at large in February 2017. In the meantime, you can access its English version here and watch this video presenting the course.