Donor: Norwegian People’s Aid NPA
Duration of the project: June 2008 – March 2009
This was the last stage of the project that was conducted from 2002 in cooperation with Legalis – The Association for the advancement of justice based on the principles of human rights from Croatia, The Human Rights Centre of the University in Sarajevo from Bosnia and Herzegovina, FORUM – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation, from Macedonia and Human Rights Action, from Montenegro. In this stage 150 legal professionals (judges, lawyers, prosecutors) and human rights activists had been trained in international human rights standards. At the same time this was good opportunity for human rights experts from SEE and Norway to exchange competence and best practices. Supreme and Constitutional Courts’ Judges from Norway and SEE meet in order to improve implementation of European Court for Human Rights decisions. The same was with prosecutors from SEE who meet in order to improve legal tools to fight organized crime and cross border criminal activities. Two specialised two-day human rights regional seminars were held. One in Montenegro “Freedom of Expression and its allowed restrictions – insult, defamation, compensation and punishment” and one in Croatia “Rights to family life – international instruments and their application in child custody cases”. Two experts’ dialogue meetings were organized “Prohibition of Violence, Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 2009), with prosecutors and other professionals from SEE and “The jurisdiction of supreme courts and constitutional courts in preventing and remedying human rights breaches” in Belgrade, Serbia (March 2009) with Supreme and Constitutional Courts Judges from the SEE region and Norway.
Project web page http://www.seelawyers.net has been updated and maintained during the whole project in five languages (Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian and English). The web page provides information about the project since its beginning (programs, lists of participants, materials and documents) but also other information relevant for the human rights practitioners, links to the most useful web pages dealing with human rights issues and links to the partner organizations.
