The program "International Law in Advocacy" for a long time successfully cooperated with the Department of Human Rights of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in the field of educational programs for Belarusian human rights defenders.The collaboration on the development of common approaches and standards in the field of training programs and education for human rights defenders proved to be fruitful. The work to prepare Guidelines on Human Rights Education for Human Rights Activists at the invitation of the OSCE was coordinated by Kazunari Fujii, chairperson of the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education & Learning of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the UN

The working group consisted of representatives from various organizations, for example – Amnesty International, Human Rights Education Youth Network, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, International Centre for Human Rights Education, Human Rights Education Associates. Among the experts who participated in the creation of the Guidelines, there were also representatives of the Human Rights House Network program "International Law in Advocacy" – Antanina Maslyka (Program Coordinator), Lenur Kerimov (member of the Program Council), program coordinator of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Liudmila Ulyashina (program manager) and Barys Zvozskau (Training Manager of Program project) – human rights activist who was one of the founders and the first president of the Belarusian HRH.

During the presentation of the Guidelines that happened in late September in Warsaw at the annual meeting of the OSCE the participants discussed the most effective use of the provisions of this document in the preparation and implementation of projects in the field of education, training and evaluation of the effectiveness of these projects.

The idea of ​​creating a document that could collect a uniform standards for education in the field of human rights arose during the regional forum «Human Rights Education: Achievements, Lessons Learned and Perspectives» which was held in Vilnius in 2009. The work of this forum resulted in the adoption of the decision on the need for development of qualifications in the field of human rights education and common standards that could unify the process of education in the field of human rights. The Guidelines are a collection of approaches applicable in the planning or implementation of educational programs for human rights defenders. The Guidelines also provide a list of key resources to assist in the planning, implementation and evaluation of human rights training for human rights defenders.

"As you know, education in the field of human rights enables each of us to gain the knowledge necessary to develop skills for promoting the adoption of measures aimed at the protection of human rights. Before the adoption of the Guidelines, perhaps, the only reference for professionals and enthusiasts in the field of human rights education were two documents: the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training and the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders). The acceptance of these Guidelines, based on the above-mentioned documents of the UN, is a major achievement in the formation of a uniform standard of quality in the development of human rights education," – said Antanina Maslyka, coordinator of "International Law in Advocacy" program in Belarus, who, on the Program recommendation, was invited to join the preparation of the Guidelines in September 2010.

Antanina Maslyka, who participated in creating the Guidelines hopes that the use of the Guidelines in human rights defenders’ training will beneficially affect the human rights situation: "I believe that the active use of this Guidelines will facilitate the use of an approach based on human rights in all components of the educational process in the field of human rights. And this, in turn, will improve the human rights situation in those regions where the document will be used. "

National teams and experts of the "International Law in Advocacy" program are prepared to apply the standards in the field of education of human rights defenders, as well as to disseminate information about this tool in the human rights community. For example, the first presentation of the Guidelines was held at the section of Human Rights Education, held in the framework of the Belarusian Human Rights Forum which took place on 27 November 2013. The next presentation will be held in Ukraine on 14-16 December this year.

Cooperation with the Rule of Law Unit of ODIHR OSCE

Since 2011, the program collaborates with other OSCE department – Rule of Law Unit. Particularly active collaboration take place in the field of monitoring of court proceedings.

This collaboration started when the head of the ODIHR Rule of Law Unit Benjamin Moreau came to the Belarusian Human Rights House at the invitation of the Program to present Belarusian lawyers and human rights defenders with Report on Trial Monitoring in Belarus (March-July 2011).

This detailed 114-page report prepared by the experts of the OSCE based on the results of observations of 12 trials of 41 accused, reflected key problems in the proceedings and clearly showed to what extent the Belarusian legislation and judicial practice conform to international standards in the administration of justice.

The report was unique material which interested Belarusian lawyers and human rights defenders. Thus the idea was born to hold trainings in this area also for other program participants.  The work in this area was carried out in two directions – introduction and dissemination of the monitoring report among the judges with the additional of the number of copies, and the development of guidelines for such monitoring. Beginning in 2012, trainings were organised for the participants of the program, where information about the standards of proceedings and rules of trial monitoring was available.

After the first training for the Belarusian participants (2012), there was the second training for graduated of the Program – lawyers from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine (February 2013), and soon there will be another training organized for the graduates from the countries of the Caucasus region. Along with OSCE experts the trainings will be conducted by graduates-tutors of Russia and Belarus, who had previously attended such training, successfully applied knowledge into practice and who can share their experiences with new students. As noted by the manager of the "International Law in Advocacy" Liudmila Ulyashina, cooperation in this area is effective and fruitful because the program participants are a group of trained listeners with extensive experience in their own countries.

For instance in 2012 the Belarusian participants Dzmitry Charnykh and Aliaksei Kazliuk were invited to the ODIHR OSCE annual meeting on the trial monitoring in Istanbul. The representatives of two Belarusian NGOs – Legal Transformation Centre Lawtrend and Belarusian Helsinki Committee were incited to such an event for the first time.

Such annual meetings are devoted to discussion of methods and monitoring features in different countries and the challenges that have to be dealt with in different countries during the monitoring.

Thanks to the active involvement of experts, the OSCE was able to develop documents describing trial standards, as well as the monitoring methodology. Thus, two guides were prepared "Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners" and "Legal Digest of International Fair Trial Rights". These materials are aimed at training lawyers to monitor trials and include techniques, methods and ways of monitoring trials and characteristics of the rights to a fair trial.

In early October 2013, a lawyers from Voronezh, participants of "Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers" project Olga Gnezdilova attended such a meeting in Warsaw on the recommendation of the Programme.Several NGOs were for the first time invited to the meeting and shared their experiences of monitoring trials. Of course, it is different from the experience of the OSCE officials. Primarily due to more publicity of discussion of the results, the involvement of journalists to cover the monitoring. The invited representatives of NGOs also said that they faced the problem of access to the courts.

Olga is actively cooperating with the Voronezh Human Rights House, Youth Human Rights Movement and other human rights NGOs, and she also coordinated the monitoring of trials in Voronezh in 2007. She also plans to work as a team on the organization of a larger monitoring that goes beyond a single region.  Until now, the trial monitoring with more or less serious coverage has never been conducted in Russia. The knowledge received during the meetings as Olga noted, will be useful in protecting the right to a fair trial in strategic litigation (in the national courts and the ECHR).

The program "International Law in Advocacy" is conducting a survey among graduates and those who have passed the training.The collected information is sent to the Rule of Law Unit, which uses it to further adapt trainings to the needs of the CIS region. This exchange of information between the graduates, the Program and OSCE contributes to standards actively being used in the protection of human rights at the national level.

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