Report of Savva Kuzmenko, Council of Europe HELP program Coordinator from UNBA, on the activities in 2022
By the Order of the UNBA, the BCU Head, Lidiya Pavlivna Izovitova, dated December 29, 2021, No. 204, Director of the Higher School of Advocacy of UNBA Savva Kuzmenko was appointed as Council of Europe HELP program Coordinator from UNBA.
In 2022, the Coordinator's activities contributed to the expansion of the partnership between the educational platforms of the Higher School of Advocacy of UNBA and the HELP Council of Europe, a number of initiatives and activities aimed at continuing the successful implementation of the Council of Europe HELP projects with the participation of the legal community.
Let present the Report of Savva Kuzmenko, Council of Europe HELP program Coordinator from UNBA, on the activities in 2022, which include the following:
- key results of cooperation between the educational platforms of the Higher School of Advocacy of UNBA and the HELP Council of Europe and promotion of the online educational space on the HELP platform;
- the results of the Coordinator's participation at the annual HELP 2022 Conference held in Strasbourg, France, 30 June – 1 July 2022;
- information on the training for trainers of the HELP platform (ToTs), Strasbourg (France), 28 November 2022;
- events in order to improve the qualifications of advocates in the Higher School of Advocacy of UNBA on the application of ECHR standards and appealing to the ECtHR under martial law;
- trainers' comments and participants' feedback about the online course "Basic principles of human rights protection in the field of biomedicine";
- events and activities, informational support for courses and events of the Council of Europe HELP program in the legal community;
- thematic manuals, reviews, compilations of ECtHR practice on the platform of the Higher School of Advocacy.
More about initiatives and activities of Council of Europe HELP program Coordinator from UNBA in 2022 at the link.
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