On 14 May 2024, the Council of Europe Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme, in partnership with the Bulgarian National Institute of Justice, launched the HELP course focusing on judicial ethics for judges, prosecutors and lawyers. The launch event was held online, and was attended by judges and prosecutors from across the country. The activity was organised under the EU-CoE HELP "Judicial Training on Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights" project, funded by the European Union's Justice Programme.

The HELP online course aims to enhance the capacity of legal professionals understand the purpose and importance of ethics in the administration of justice for the benefit of the people, allowing to identify key concepts and understand common values, ethical principles and virtues. The course is delivered online with national tutors guiding participants through the material over the following months.

Korneliya Kirilova from the National Institute of Justice opened the seminar with welcome addresses. Paul Blanchard, from the Council of Europe, provided a comprehensive overview of the HELP Programme, detailing its objectives and the functionalities of the online course platform, emphasising how the HELP courses support the implementation of European human rights standards at the national level.

Lubov Stoytcheva from the Department of Execution of Judgments of the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) presented the perspective of the ECHR on judicial independence and impartiality with an overview of the caselaw against Bulgaria.

Participants had the chance to benefit from a triple presentation made by the tutors who represented the three legal professions targeted by the course: Rositsa Toncheva (judge), Desislava Petrova (Prosecutor’s office) and Eli Hristova (lawyer). Their presentations highlighted the importance of ethics in preserving independency and impartiality of the judiciary.

Participants will go through five comprehensive modules including two general on Introduction and International and European framework and three specific modules for judges, prosecutors and lawyers, respectively. To have a common and global understanding of what ethics means for each of those professions, participants will go through all these modules regardless of their profession.

The HELP online course on Ethics for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers takes 9 hours to complete and is also available in several languages in self-learning format (openly accessible, self-paced, certified) at this link.