Thirty-five lawyers and human rights defenders were selected for training in applying the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Revised European Social Charter, looking in particular at anti-discrimination standards. The event is organized in the framework of a joint program of the Council of Europe and the European Union for Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, IPN reports.
“The series of activities within this joint program are designed to raise the capacity of Moldovan lawyers to litigate on the basis of ECHR jurisprudence as well to increase the quality of applications to the European Court of Human Rights,” said Ghenadie Barba, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Moldova.
The lawyers will pass a final test at the end of the three sessions. They will pass on their knowledge to groups of lawyers and human rights defenders, training them to apply human rights standards in Moldovan cases.
Gheorghe Amihalachioaie, head of the Union of Lawyers of Moldova, said that non-discrimination is becoming an issue of increased interest in the country, and with the adoption of the appropriate legal framework the importance of training in this field will be of great value to society.
Wicher Slagter, head of the Political and Economic Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Moldova, said the present joint program aims to ensure a proper support to the CoE member states in their obligations to secure the rights and freedoms enshrined in the ECHR at the national level with a view to simultaneously reducing the number of inadmissible applications lodged with the ECHR.