Three rights organizations from South Caucasus countries: Legal Education Society from Azerbaijan, Article 42 of the Constituion from Georgian and Armenian Institute for Development from Armenia since four years have been engaged in the project called “The Strategic Litigation in the South Caucasus”. The project was supported by the Netherlands Helsinki Committee based in Hague, the Netherlands.
The objective of the project was to allow the above-mentioned organizations to conduct strategic cases in their countries. The project involved number of lawyers whose competences included, inter alia, lodging complaints with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. By undertaking this activities the organizations also wanted to reach another goal which was the increase of the lawyers’ skills and knowledge in the field of the protection of human rights within the Council of Europe system.
The project involved organization of two Regional Meetings with the participation of all organizations – partners to the project. The Second Regional Meeting was carried out in Turkey, Antalya in the days of 29-31 August 2010. Twenty five lawyers from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia participated in the meeting. The meeting gathered also experts from other civil society organizations: Mr. Henk Hulshof from the Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Mr. Adam Bodnar from the Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights as well as Ms. Dina Vedernikova from the Interights.
The main objective of the Second Regional Meeting was to evaluate the fulfillment of “the Strategic Litigation in the South Caucasus” project. It included discussions on the achievements of the project as well as a debate on the problem concerning the enforcement of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
The Second Regional Meeting lasted for three days. Each of the day was dedicated to a specific issue and was aiming at reaching a stipulated goal. Since the project is nearly finished (December 2010), the first day of the Regional Meeting concerned evaluation of the whole project with the participation of Mr. Henk Hulshof. This part was mainly to highlight the most important problems regarding the project and its realization which subsequently each project coordinator should include during preparations of the final report regarding the project.
The second day of the meeting was carried out with the participation of Mr. Adam Bodnar from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and Ms. Dina Vedernikova from the Interights. It included discussion panels dedicated to the role of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the process of the enforcement of the European Court for Human Rights judgments.
The last day of the meeting concerned issues related to the prolongation of the above-mentioned project. All participants were involved in the discussion during which they presented their ideas in this respect as well as suggestions concerning the shape of further cooperation.
It must be emphasized that during the meeting all achievements reached in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in the course of the fulfillment of the project were presented. They indicated a big importance of the project for all three countries. What is crucial, in those countries the level of awareness and engagement in the strategic litigation used to be very low. The project stimulated lawyers and the rights organizations to conduct strategic cases which subsequently led to amendments in the national legislation as well as in practice of the authorities
