The advocates from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Russia, who had luck to gain knowledge within the programme framework, came to the conference in Vilnius.
One year ago they had started learning how to apply international law in everyday practice in their home countries, and the conference in Belarusian HRH on 11-14 March was a finishing stroke in the educational process.
“Today’s conference is the final step of the big project, big programme, where the lawyers communicated mostly distantly: they discussed educational materials and cases from their own practice on internet forum” – said the project co-ordinator L. Ulyashyna
The human rights above the law
The programme that had been implemented on post-Soviet area by the Human Rights House Foundation along with local partners challenges the post-Soviet tradition of disrespectful attitude towards human rights and of linking all legal environment to the number of laws and other regulatory limitations.
“A lawyer should always see the law as an instrument which must not violate the rights – says L. Ulyashyna – The law can limit the rights, but not to the extent when a person becomes unfree. It is important for a person to leave the court with clear understanding that the process was complete, all pros and cons were weighed, and people in the courtroom remembered not only about the law but also about the rights.”
In this context, the lawyers’ role is vital, says the leader of the project: “The idea of the project is to turn the professional lawyers to the essence of human rights. The lawyers cannot stay within strict framework of the law, as in that case the legislator by limitation of the law, or implementation of new law, can totally destroy a person.”
The project “Electronic Human Rights Education for
Lawyers” was created to bring together lawyers from different countries by the use of electronic educational materials prepared by the international and national experts. Now the project is a two-level educational programme, which consists of interactive education for jurists, consultations with experts, preparation of essays and tests, individual reports to UN Human Rights Council and electronic tests.
The programme of the conference was developed to increase lawyers’ qualification in the context of the human rights as well as to improve their skills of an independent interpretation of human rights issues.
During the event, the participants were introduced to the materials on the effective use of UN human rights mechanisms; the aspects of filing complaints to the European Court of Human Rights; the human rights defence system under the European Convention on Human Rights. The experts from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Ireland, the UK, France have spoken during the conference. All the participants of the project received certificates.
The first conference of that kind was held in September 2010 and provided the lawyers with extended possibilities and preparation in the human rights area, creating strong professional network. The general aim of the project is to improve the quality of basic freedoms protection based on the rule of law, increase experience and provide the direct application of international standards of human rights.
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