On 2 December, the Council of Europe Project “HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) for Ukraine including during wartime” has presented its achievements and the plans for the future Phase II of the Project, scheduled for 2025-2026.

A discussion involving project partners and representatives of Ukrainian universities took place during the project's Final Steering Committee meeting on 2 December in Krakow (Poland).

Despite the challenges of the war, Ukrainian legal professionals and future lawyers demonstrate an increased interest in human rights and European and EU standards in the context of the European integration of Ukraine.

Maciej Janczak, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine reminded that the Project is being  implemented within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026 “Resilience. Recovery. Reconstruction” and thanked 23 the Council of Europe member states, the European Union and the Human Rights Trust Fund for their support and contributions. “The Council of Europe Office in Ukraine remains steadfast in its support to the national partners. We are fully committed to providing political, organisational, and logistical assistance to ensure the success of the follow-up HELP project”, said Mr Janczak.

Lilja Gretarsdottir, Head of the Department for Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards, Council of Europe congratulated the participants on remarkable results and achievements and reassured full support to continuation of work and standing by Ukraine during the difficult times.

Ana-Maria Telbis, a.i. Head of Justice and Human Rights Training Division, Department for the implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) Council of Europe praised the efforts of the partners, who in an extremely difficult context, continued to equipping the legal professionals with knowledge and skills to assist  those in need with the skills they acquired.

Olga Kostenko, International Coordinator of the Project has presented the Project`s outstanding results achieved in two years:

• The number of Ukrainian users of the HELP Platform has increased by 162% from 6472 in December 2022 to 17000 in December 2024 ;Ukrainian legal professionals have actively used the Platform.
•  During just first 6 months of 2024, 2033 lawyers completed self-learning courses and obtained the certificates of accomplishment.
• Ukraine ranks the first according to the number of users who have completed the self-learning courses and obtained electronic certificates of accomplishment.
• Ukraine has the biggest growth in the number of users compared to other countries.
• Ukraine ranked second after Turkey among 46 countries according to the number of users of the HELP Platform.
• The Bar Council of Ukraine has officially accredited all HELP courses available in Ukrainian for lawyers in the free legal aid system. Certificates of completion of the Council of Europe courses on the HELP platform will provide lawyers cooperating with the legal aid system with 2 credits for each HELP course completed.
• 37 HELP courses have been translated into Ukrainian and are available on the HELP Platform. The full catalogue of courses in Ukrainian could be downloaded at this link.
• Three new HELP courses "International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights" and "Temporary Protection in the European Union" and "Deportation of Children during Armed Conflicts" have been developed. Also, an updated version of the course "Transitional Justice and Human Rights" has been developed and translated into Ukrainian.
• 18 HELP courses were adapted and training with tutors was conducted for 992 participants – judges, prosecutors, lawyers and civil servants, police officers.
• HELP eDesks on migration and asylum issues were supported not only in Ukraine and Moldova, but also outside these countries (in total, in 17 countries). The total number of legal practitioners registered on HELP eDesks is 2622 lawyers.
• HELP courses are actively presented and implemented in Ukrainian law universities. Memoranda of cooperation were signed with 5 universities.
• The Strategy for the Implementation of Council of Europe HELP Courses in the Educational Process of Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine has been developed and presented.
• 5 trainings for trainers (ToT) for HELP tutors have been conducted within two years and 91 certified HELP tutors have been trained.

Galyna Smirnova, Senior Project Officer has presented the planned activities of the Phase II of the HELP Project, which aims to develop knowledge and skills of Ukrainian current and future legal professionals to apply European human rights standards, including in times of war, as well as to enhance institutional capacity of justice-related institutions and universities in Ukraine. The project will promote three newly developed HELP courses, facilitate translation of HELP courses in Ukrainian, train new HELP tutors and carry out the national adaptation and launches of the tutored courses to different audiences of legal professionals.

Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine re-confirmed full support to the HELP Programme and expressed a wish to facilitate the efforts for the promotion and popularisation of the HELP courses  in the system of the higher education in Ukraine.

Tamara Zakrevska, Deputy Head of the Department on trainers’ preparation of the National School of Judges of Ukraine has informed that the judges would be interested in the adaptation and launching of the HELP courses “Bioethics”, “Environment and Human Rights”, “Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights”, and “Deportation of Children during Armed Conflicts”.

The partners proposed to translate into Ukrainian the HELP courses “Data Protection and Privacy Rights”, “Child Friendly Justice”, “Introduction to Human Rights Protection in Europe - Interplay between the ECHR and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights”, and “Right to Liberty and Security”.

Oleg Duka, Deputy Director of the Prosecutor`s Training Center of Ukraine has informed about the successful introduction of HELP courses in training of prosecutor trainees and  proposed to launch the courses on “International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights”, “Pre-trial Investigation and ECHR”, “International Cooperation in Criminal Matters”, “Cybercrime and Electronic Evidence”, “Combating Human Trafficking”, “Procedural Guarantees in Criminal Proceedings and Victims' Rights”, “Prohibition of Ill-treatment”, “Child-Friendly Justice and Children's Rights" and "Children's Rights: Main Challenges”.

Oleksandr Baranov, Director of the Coordination Center for Legal Aid Provision at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has reminded that more than 700 lawyers in the free legal aid system need constant development of their professional capacity.

Savva Kuzmenko, Director of the Higher School of Advocacy, Ukrainian National Bar Association expressed interest in the courses on temporary protection in the European Union and deportation of children. Mr Kuzmenko informed that the topics of internal displacement, labour rights, anti-discrimination and hate speech are an important priority for training.  Also, Mr Kuzmenko has informed about the plans of the Bar Council of Ukraine to accredit all HELP courses for Ukrainian lawyers as professional capacity development.

Inna Zavorotko, Deputy Head of the International Law Section, Legal Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has expressed interest in cooperation for promotion of the courses “International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights”, “Deportation of Children during the Armed Conflics” and “Human Rights in the Armed Forces” for military personnel in Ukraine.

Valentyna Lisovska, Head of the Center for Professional Development on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Higher School of Governance and Iryna Kovtunova, Representative of the Center for International Cooperation of the Office of the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine have presented their proposals to the work plan for the Phase II project.

Representatives of Ukrainian universities shared the examples of the high success of the HELP courses in universities and proposed to deepen cooperation with universities.

The partners had a vivid discussion and exchange of views and had proposed a number of initiatives for the new Project. The partners underlined the need for constant development of knowledge and skills of legal professionals and expressed interest in the topics related to the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, including the investigation of war crimes and courses on “International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights”, “Human Rights in the Armed Forced”, and Deportation of Children during Armed Conflicts”.

In the concluding remarks, the representatives of the partner organisations expressed their deep satisfaction with the projects results and asked for the prolongations of the project for two more years.