On April 18, the Council of Europe HELP course "Discrimination and Fight Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Transphobia" was launched at the Kozyn Center, organised by the Council of Europe Projects “HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) for Ukraine, including during wartime” and European Union and Council of Europe Joint Project "Support to the implementation of European standards on combating discrimination and the rights of national minorities in Ukraine" in cooperation with the High School of Public Governance, the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service and the Higher School of Advocacy of the Ukrainian National Bar Association.
More than 120 participants, including attorneys civil servants of central executive bodies and military state administrations, lawyers of the free legal aid system from different regions of Ukraine, took part in a hybrid format in the launch of the course and registered for the tutored course on the Council of Europe HELP platform.
The participants of the launch of the course were welcomed by Natalia Alyushyna, Head of the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service; Kateryna Levchenko, Government Commissioner for Gender Policy; Ivan Verveyko, Head of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights; Yuliya Lykhach, Director of the Higher School of Public Administration; Hanna Kolesnyk, Head of the Committee on Human Rights Protection of the Ukrainian National Bar Association; and Erlend Falch, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
Striving to ensure equality and full access to rights and opportunities for all members of society is a significant part of the Council of Europe’s mission. This is particularly important during wartime and in the post-war context. For this reason, the current Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026 focuses on supporting the authorities and other Ukrainian stakeholders in ensuring inclusiveness and non-discrimination and protecting the rights of national and other minority groups in the war and a post-war reconstruction process.
The training course will last 2.5 months and will help participants better understand and apply international and European anti-discrimination instruments and the rules for the application of Art. 14 of the ECHR and the approach of the ECtHR in discrimination cases, as well as to acquire knowledge of the legal instruments of the EU and the Council of Europe aimed at countering manifestations of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia, as well as approaches to combating them and understanding these concepts and the reasons for their appearance.
The peculiarity of the tutoring course is that it combines two HELP courses "Anti-Discrimination" and "Combating Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Transphobia", which are supplemented by materials of national adaptation regarding Ukrainian legislation, judicial practice and the context of the course topics. The HELP courses were adapted to the legal system of Ukraine by tutors and experienced experts of the Council of Europe HELP, in particular Oksana Guz, a lawyer, who represents the interests of representatives of vulnerable groups, and is engaged in strategic litigation and advocacy at the local and national levels; Valentyna Lisovska, Head of the Center for Professional Development for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the High School of Public Governance; and Viktoriia Polishchuk, lawyer, mediator, Chair of the Ukrainian National Bar Association Labor Law Committee, Head of the Center for Labor Law and Social Security of the Higher Schhool of Advocacy.
During the launching event, Council of Europe experts Larysa Kobelianska and Ella Lamakh conducted interactive exercises to identify discrimination in various real-life situations and the most typical manifestations of discrimination against Roma citizens. Also, the participants discussed the signs of transphobia in communication.
During the course, there will be a webinar on accessibility with Olena Pashchenko, Head of the Barrier-Free Sector of the Human Rights Department of the Department of the Main Inspectorate and Human Rights of the National Police of Ukraine and on the problems faced by representatives of various vulnerable groups with Sviatoslav Sheremet, expert of the group on health and rights of LGBTIQ+ people in Ukraine; human rights activist, trainer, member of the Board of the NGO "Incubator of Democratic Initiatives".
The HELP courses "Anti-Discrimination" and "Combating Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Transphobia" are available in self-learning format on the HELP Platform. New users to the HELP platform will have to create an account before accessing this course or any of the over 52 online courses developed by the Council of Europe HELP Programme and available in self-learning format. Currently, 12748 Ukrainian lawyers have accounts on the HELP eLearning Platform, putting Ukraine on the third place according to the number of users among the 46 Council of Europe member states. Currently, 33 HELP courses are available in Ukrainian on the CoE HELP eLearning Platform, and the full catalogue of HELP courses is available here.
