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HELP Network Conference, 4-5 July 2024
2024 HELP Network Conference

2024 HELP Network Conference held in Strasbourg marks Programme’s 20th anniversary

On 4 and 5 July 2024, the Council of Europe Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) held its 2024 Network Conference under the auspices of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The Conference was held in the Council of Europe (CoE) premises in Strasbourg, France and was attended by 125 participants in person and by some over 100 online. This time HELP also celebrated its 20th anniversary. The agenda can be consulted here.

The HELP Annual Network Conference is the main gathering of the HELP Network members (representatives of national judicial training institutions for judges, prosecutors and lawyers) and partners such as the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), etc. The event was also streamed online.

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The opening session was chaired by Frédéric DOLT, Head of Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation Standards, Council of Europe, who welcomed the participants and reaffirmed the importance of human rights training, and thus the relevance of the HELP Programme, also proven by the large audience present to the event or following online.

Lyra JAKULEVICIENE, Dean of the Law School at Mykolas Romeris University, opened the Conference at the request of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers by congratulating the HELP Programme for its 20th anniversary. She emphasised that 20 years of existence stand for maturity, solid experience and continued relevance for the legal community across Europe and beyond. Over time, in Lithuania and not only, the HELP Programme has contributed with learning tools, networking and methodologies on application of human rights standards in a timely, accessible and sustainable manner. She also presented the priorities of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, namely to support Ukraine defending itself against Russia’s brutal war of aggression, giving prime importance to the consistent implementation of the Reykjavik Summit decisions, to the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and to the further strengthening of the Organisation. Among other priorities are the reinforcement of social rights; the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights; the promotion of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists; the fight against disinformation, hate speech and distortion of history, and the digital dimension of freedoms, including artificial intelligence and human rights.

As part of the first priority, the Presidency is also very concerned about the protection of rights, safety, and well-being of the children of Ukraine, and also the safe return of Ukrainian children unlawfully deported by Russia. She highlighted the HELP Programme’s new initiative, to elaborate a special course on the deportation of children during armed conflicts, to be presented at the concluding phase of Lithuanian Presidency in November. She further noted how many of the HELP courses available on the HELP e-learning platform address the priorities of the Presidency and finished by encouraging people to acknowledge that education is a soft power of democracy, that needs to be supported and engaged.

Ambassador Vesna BATISTIĆ KOS, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Council of Europe, opened her speech by thanking the Council of Europe for the long-lasting cooperation with the European Commission on judicial training. She addressed the current and future EU Judicial Training Strategy, talking about the need to take stock of what has been achieved and make plans for the future. She explained that the new Strategy will focus on the digitalisation of justice, which implies new training needs, development of new ideas and solutions. There is therefore a need to create a supportive environment for such an objective, with HELP playing an important role in it by contributing to enhancing the digital capacities of justice professionals; through HELP, they learn to use digital tools effectively, as well as related procedural law; they are supported to adapt to the new needs of societies and raise awareness about risks. She also emphasised the EU support for the Register of Damages for Ukraine and the possibility to collaborate with HELP on support provided to Ukraine as well.

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The keynote speech at the Conference was delivered by Judge Marko BOŠNJAK, President of the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR), who had started his mandate just a few days before the Conference. He highlighted that the ECtHR, which is currently dealing with over 64,000 pending applications, mostly concerning 5 countries is also the only international tribunal dealing with human rights issues related to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the only international court which is examining, at the merits stage, events in Ukraine dating back to 2014 including the invasion in February 2022. He emphasised the importance of the externalised Knowledge Sharing platform and particularly its recently launched page on the synergy between European Union law and Convention law, in providing useful resources to legal professionals applying the ECHR. He also mentioned the ECtHR’s Superior Courts Network and emphasised that  the Convention system depends on its relationship with domestic jurisdictions and on judicial dialogue. He stated that the importance of the HELP Network in facilitating the relationship between the Strasbourg Court and domestic jurisdictions, cannot be overstated. HELP provides excellent assistance by raising awareness of the Convention, synthesising case-law, facilitating accessible training, and providing essential courses, such as on reasoning of judgments which comply with Council of Europe standards.

Furthermore, he praised HELP for dealing with emerging challenges on specialised topics, such as artificial intelligence and addressed some of them by looking at recent ECtHR case law. He also discussed environment and human rights, looking briefly at several cases decided upon in 2024.

He concluded by stating that “In such turbulent times of geopolitical upheaval, cooperation between the Council of Europe and domestic jurisdictions is as important now as it has ever been.

Ensuring effective protection of human rights in Europe requires continued collaboration in our system of shared responsibility, with a fully informed community of judges, prosecutors, practicing lawyers, and University students.

The HELP network and its offer of a multitude of courses provides a vital tool for maintaining democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in Europe.”

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As in the 2 previous editions of the HELP Network Conference, a prominent place in the agenda was dedicated again to the initiatives carried out by the Council of Europe and in particular by its Justice and Human Rights Training Division to support Ukrainian and European legal professionals in the face of the war in Ukraine following the Russia’s military aggression and its consequences. 

Olga KOSTENKO, Coordinator of the ‘HELP for Ukraine’ Project highlighted the continuous response of the Programme to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The number of the HELP eLearning Platform users from Ukraine have increased from 4,500 when the war started in 2022 to over 13,500 in July 2024 and 34 HELP courses have been translated so far into Ukrainian. The HELP courses most followed in Ukraine are the course on the Introduction to the ECHR and the ECtHR, Admissibility Criteria, Labour Rights as Human Rights, and Ethics for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers. She also talked about the extensive cooperation with Ukrainian universities and law schools, which was further taken up in the online intervention of Oleksandr PYZHOV, PhD in Law, Head of Senate of CSO "Commission for Legal Education and Awareness", Vice-Rector for Research and Academic Affairs and Strategic Development of the National University of Ukraine on Physical Education and Sport. He detailed the cooperation with HELP within the setting of his Institution, which could serve as model for other similar initiatives.

The session included an intervention from Olesia OTRADNOVA, Director of the Prosecutors Training Center of Ukraine, who shared information regarding the past, current and future use of HELP courses for prosecutors in Ukraine.

New HELP courses or modules have been created to address specific issues emerging from this conflict, such as those on International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights – presented by Mykola GNATOVSKYY, Judge at the ECtHR and coordinator of the Working Group in charge of the development of the course,  Temporary Protection in the EU – presented by Olga KOSTENKO, and Deportation of Children during armed conflict (under development) – presented by Olga POIEDYNOK, co-author of the course.

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The main achievements of the HELP Programme were presented by Ana Maria TELBIS, Head a.i. of Justice and Human Rights Training Division, Council of Europe, who revealed that the number of users on the HELP eLearning platform had grown to more than 156.000 at the end of June 2024 (top 10 CoE MS: Türkiye, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Romania, Portugal, UK and Georgia). The catalogue of HELP online courses on various human rights topics grew to 56 courses and more than 600 national versions (translations and adaptations to national law and jurisprudence), all freely available on the CoE HELP eLearning platform. HELP courses cover European human rights standards illustrating the interplay between the Council of Europe (ECHR, European Social Charter and other Council of Europe Conventions as well as ECtHR jurisprudence) and EU (EU Charter and other EU law and jurisprudence the Court of Justice of the European Union).

The work carried out in HELP was further detailed under the different regional projects: HELP in the EU (presented by Oana GIRLESCU, EU-CoE HELP in the EU III Project Coordinator), HELP in the Western Balkans (presented by Jasminka PERUNICIC ALLEN, HELP in WB Project Coordinator), HELP in Eastern Partnership and Central Asia (presented by Krystyna KHOKHLOVA, HELP Programme Coordinator)  and HELP in South Mediterranean (presented by Valentina BOZ, Head of Unit, Capacity building and cooperation – South Mediterranean region).

Two freshly published HELP courses were announced, with the HELP Network being encouraged to use them and promote them:

Ingrid DERVEAUX praised the strong partnership between HELP and EJTN, which led to the creation of the online course she presented and which is based on the works from the EJTN’s Judges@Europe forum, as one of the two outputs of this initiative, the other one being the “Handbook on the rule of law and good administration of justice in the digital era”.

Furthermore, other HELP courses developed or updated since the 2023 HELP Network Conference were also briefly described:

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As a novelty and taking into consideration an area that the HELP Programme is focusing more and more, a group of session was dedicated this year to human rights (training) in the era of digitalisation.

Wojciech POSTULSKI, Team Leader, Digital transition and judicial training, DG JUST, European Commission talked about the EU’s perspective on judicial training and digitalisation, touching upon HELP courses as a tool to bridge/enhance EU-CoE cooperation and impact on the EU Judicial Training Strategy. He explained how the digitalisation of justice has as objectives to improve efficiency, quality and access to justice and to contribute to EU competitiveness and resilience. This will imply an extensive use of digital tools, in particular AI, EU support for digitalisation of national judicial systems, fully digitalised judicial procedures and more videoconferencing. Steps are being taken in this direction through and during a series of legislative and non-legislative measures. Among others, he also presented the findings of the European Judicial Training Report and of the 2024 EC Conference.

Furthermore, he announced the decision of DG JUST to fund the next phase of the EU-CoE HELP in the EU Project, which will constitute the main source of funding for the HELP Programme’s activities in the European Union.

Renis ZAGANJORI, from the Knowledge Sharing Unit of the ECtHR, gave an overview of the ECtHR Knowledge Sharing platform that became public in October 2022, providing updates on the newest available resources and details about how they are created and updated regularly, as well as some other initiatives concerning the Knowledge Sharing Platform (ECHR-KS), including the intention to make the platform available in non-official languages.

Sanja JOVICIC, Project Manager at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) presented the tools and resources related to the Charter developed by FRA, among which, the 2024 Fundamental Rights Report, Charter country sheets, Charterpedia (the Agency’s encyclopaedia on the EU Charter), the Charter Handbook, Charter case studies, as well as the FRA platform where, among others, Charter courses are to be found. 

Furthermore, colleagues from the Council of Europe talked about supporting national authorities in effectively addressing current training challenges through digitalisation, innovation and the integration of HELP courses. Lilja GRETTARDOTTIR, Head of the Cooperation Programmes Division and Tigran KARAPETYAN, Head of the Transversal Challenges and Multilateral Projects Division, described in progress and future initiatives meant at fulfilling the mandate of the Council of Europe, while providing useful support to member states. They talked, among others,  about national training institutions for legal professionals as key beneficiaries of projects and initiatives on data protection and prevention of ill-treatment, the European NPM Forum and cooperation with universities on human rights, environment and business.

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Participants also received presentations on synergies between cooperation and standard setting/monitoring, with a focus on training as a vector for advancing human rights protection.

Amaya UBEDA from the Department for Social Rights of the Council of Europe talked about HELP and the European Social Charter. She informed the participants about the High-Level Conference on the European Social Charter and discussed the necessity to boost training on social rights, emphasising that the implementation of the Carter can only be achieved if legal professionals know about it, understand it and become able to use it in their daily work.

Szymon JANCZAREK from the Department for the Execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ Judgments looked at the use of HELP courses to address the execution of judgments. He explained how his Department provides assistance to member states on the matter, underlining that training is often a component of what needs to be done at the national level in terms of general measures. HELP courses can therefore be of significant importance, states being informed more and more often about the relevant ones available on the HELP eLearning platform.

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Participants also had the opportunity to hear and discuss among themselves about optimising training resources at both the European and the national level.

Simone CUOMO, Secretary General of the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe (CCBE), talked about the wide range of activities carried out by the CCBE, such as establishing principles, issuing position papers and responding to legislative initiatives, particularly those that need to be addressed at the European level. He gave the example of CCBE’s manifesto issued in the context of elections currently taking place in many member states, which urges the respect and promotion of the rule of law. He also touched upon the collaboration with Council of Europe bodies, focusing on the HELP Programme; CCBE is participating in the elaboration, implementation and promotion of HELP courses.

A special session was dedicated to HELP in Universities and the possibilities and advantages steaming from the integration of HELP courses in the education curricula of law schools and other institutions where they might be relevant. This session was led by Krystyna KHOKHLOVA, HELP Programme Coordinator, with the participation of Andrii MEDVID, Doctor of Law, Professor of the Departments of Theory of State and Law, Lviv University of trade and economics and Midhat IZMIRLIJA, Professor at the Law School of the University of Sarajevo. The two professors talked about examples from their respective universities and the session touched upon other examples as well, such as the very good collaboration with universities in Armenia, Finland, Georgia, North Macedonia and Türkiye.

Furthermore, the members of the HELP Network participated in a workshop by groups, with the objective to discuss guiding principles in designing, implementing and evaluating human rights training, share experience and think about the effective and impactful use of HELP. After discussing in groups, a common session was organised, where the discussions were briefly summarised. Ana-Maria TELBIS, Head of the Justice and Human Rights Training Division, led this session, discussing as well possible developments and the future of HELP, praising the commitment of the Focal and Info Points across HELP initiatives.

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The event concluded with a session aimed at reflection on lessons learnt and steps to take after the 20 years of existence of the HELP programme within the Council of Europe. The participants watched a video in which they heard about the experience with HELP, over the years, from two former HELP managers, Eva PASTRANA, now Head of the Criminal Law Division of the Council of Europe and Tatiana TERMACIC, now Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, Parliamentary Assembly.

During the Conference, some members of the HELP Network were interviewed about their own experience with HELP and their expectations from the future, and their contributions were also compiled in a video.

The closing remarks were given by Christos GIAKOUMOPOULOS, Director General of DG Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe. He acknowledged how important events such as the HELP Network Conference are, as they offer an opportunity to reflect upon and highlight the significance of human rights education, especially in light of the "Reykjavik principles”. Looking back at the two decades of life of HELP, he noticed how the Programme operated during major crises, such as the pandemic and armed conflicts, always adapting and responding to changes, consistently striving to meet the needs of legal professionals.

HELP has proven its relevance as a high-quality, cost-effective training solution. With over 50 courses available in more than 600 language versions and hundreds of national adaptations, HELP has established itself as an efficient human rights training method. He concluded by thanking the members of the HELP Network for their willingness, creativity, and innovation, as well as their collaboration with HELP and expressed his hope that “these past two days have inspired you on how you and your national institutions can make a difference”.

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Strasbourg, France 4-5 July 2024
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