HELP in the Western Balkans, a geographical project of the Council of Europe Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme funded by the HRTF, in co-operation with the joint European Union and the Council of Europe action Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia organised a regional Training of Trainers (ToT) for future tutors of HELP courses at domestic level. The event was organised in a hybrid form with a total of 60 participants - judges, prosecutors and lawyers - from the whole region of the Western Balkans.

The event was opened by the Director of the Serbian Academy, Nenad Vujic and Jasminka Perunicic-Allen, co-ordinator of the project HELP in the Western Balkans, together with the two main trainers: Eva Massa and Ivana Krstic.

The main objectives of the training were: to understand the HELP Programme and its mission, the role of HELP tutors in implementing HELP courses, and learn how to adapt HELP courses to the domestic legal order, as well as to the needs of the target audience. Participants also learnt how to run HELP courses online (following the face-to-face launch events), make use of the HELP e-learning platform and its HELP human rights/legal courses, to moderate HELP courses and or use HELP courses as complement to their training programmes. The HELP courses focus on the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter and other Council of Europe Conventions and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Most of them also cover the EU legal system. The participants were also presented to the materials and resources developed by the ECtHR, such as the HUDOC database and the Knowledge Sharing platform (ECHR-KS). A representative of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has also addressed the future HELP tutors presenting a cooperation with the Council of Europe and FRA database.

After the ToT session, participants (who are not yet certified HELP trainers) will be asked to complete a final assignment, designed to assess their skills on applying the HELP methodology and the use of the HELP e-learning platform. The successful completion of this final assignment is necessary to obtain the certification as HELP tutors.

The joint EU/CoE actions Strengthening accountability of the judicial system and enhancing protection of victims' rights in Montenegro, and Towards a consolidated and more efficient free legal aid (FLA) system in North Macedonia have also supported the event.