Traditional award ceremony for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights took place on 10 December.Winners in three categories, “Human rights defender of 2012”, “Lawyer of 2012” and “Journalist of 2012” were selected by representatives of human rights organisation and journalists. The title of Lawyer of the year was awarded to Alvina Dryha and Alina Shostak, the participants of the “The Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers” project.As Tamara Sidarenka, a former lawyer, who was subsequently denied her licence because of her civic stand, noted that both of the nominees for the award are professional lawyers, who, despite the risk of losing the profession, are protecting activists of the democratic movement and do it very efficiently.

It is important to note that in 2009 Raman Kislyak, who was an expert in the HRH program “International Law in Advocacy”, has won the same award in the category “Human rights defender of the Year”. Pavel Sapelka became a winner of “Lawyer of the year award” the same year.

Alvina Dryho said that the recognition of her colleagues and journalists is certainly a good sign, but the greatest reward for a lawyer is the success in the case, when it is possible to help a person to restore his or her rights: “The news that, according to human rights organizations in Belarus, I was recognized as Lawyer of 2012 was quite unexpected for me, but certainly I was pleased to know this.But the fact is, I am just doing a job I love. When someone asks me for a legal aid, it is not important for me, who this person is or what kind of case I am going to join. If my qualifications allows me to deal with the case, I am taking it. At work, I do not divide people into groups; what important for me is to help a person in a certain situation, which can be very difficult sometimes, because that is the reason why I came to this profession. When it is possible to help a person to restore his/her violated rights, that is worth a lot, and this is probably the greatest award! “.

Alvina, along with other participants from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, took part in the “The Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers” project, and admitted that the knowledge of international law allowed her to see her profession in a different light: “The training helped me a lot.Frankly speaking, it made me to open my eyes on many aspects. When you “get stuck” only within the framework of national legislation,there is nothing to compare with, so you just get used to some things. I may say there is some kind of soul-searching. I had no idea how this training would help me with the professional development. I now look differently at each specific problem, I construct the position differently in each case, and even think in another way. I see things how they should be and how they should not be in such moments, where I could not before.

According to Alvina Dryha, self-development is important for the lawyers, as for representatives of other professions, so the training course for lawyers contributed to her professional advancement in many ways: “Thanks to this project, everything changed in my lawyers practice: I construct my position differently in the case, I also feel better what particular right is violated, and I see the availability of many cases in which I doubted to participate before. One can even say that the work has become more interesting with the knowledge that I have received. “

The number of lawyers, who were introduced to the questions of application of international standards for the assessment of national legislation and implementation into the practice during the process of judicial remedies is constantly growing. Dozens of Belarusian lawyers, who participated in the HRH Network program “International law in Advocacy”, help the evolutionary development of the Belarusian legal community. Diffusion of knowledge, convictions and new approaches take place during their professional activities. And this “works” for the present and the future of Belarus.

Organizers and Experts of the Program believe that the generation of “human rights lawyers”, educated in the framework of the Program, will help the real, not declarative implementation of the international obligations of the Republic of Belarus in the field of human rights protection at the national level.

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The Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers (EHREL) is a project under the Human Rights House Network program “International Law in Advocacy” prepared and implemented in cooperation with Human Rights House Foundation’s partner organizations.

The project aims to establish a connection between the advocates of the CIS countries, providing them with educational materials on human rights on the Internet prepared by international and national experts. The project contributes to efforts to implement the commitments as part of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and other international organizations, to support the implementation of the commitments on human rights in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The aim of the project is to strengthen the promotion, protection and fulfillment of human rights under the rule of law, and the consolidation of the potential by training of lawyers, setting up the networks and raising awareness of the direct application of human rights standards at the national level.

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