On 4 May 2021, the Council of Europe Human rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) course on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence was launched in Azerbaijani for a group of 30 judges, prosecutors and lawyers and will last from May to July 2021. The launch event was organised in close cooperation with the Academy of Justice of Azerbaijan.
Following the welcoming remarks by Ambassador Zoltan Hernyes, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Baku, Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas, Head of the European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan and Elchin Khalafov, Acting Rector of the Academy of Justice the representatives of the Council of Europe as well as international and local experts introduced to the audience the HELP Programme and course on violence against women and domestic violence, the main European standards in the field, in particular, the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention) and the relevant national legal framework.
This HELP online course covers, in an interactive way, the key concepts, the international and European legal framework and the European case law governing the prevention and protection of women and girls from violence, focusing, in particular, on the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention. The course offers a comprehensive curriculum to improve the quality of the judicial response in violence against women and domestic violence cases and support the access to justice for victims of violence while prosecuting perpetrators. Successful participants will be certified jointly by the Academy of Justice of Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe HELP Programme.
The adaptation and running of the course take place under the action “Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan” within the Partnership for Good Governance II (PGGII), a European Union and Council of Europe joint programme in the Eastern Partnership countries, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe.
