Retraining Lawyers in Transition Countries of Southeast Europe

This project has started in 2002 and continued in 2006. The aim of the project is to retrain members of legal profession responsible for protection and the implementation of human rights (i.e. legal professionals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, government officials involved in the reform of judiciary in the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the human rights NGOs activists).Belgrade Centre for Human Rights cooperating on this project with Croatian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights Centre of the University in Sarajevo, FORUM – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation, Skopje, Human Rights Action from Montenegro. In this phase of the project five specialised three days training programs were held.

1. Budva, Montenegro, 14-16 September 2006, “Arrest, detention, imprisonment. Prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment . Right to liberty and security”
2. Lovran, Croatia, 5-7 October 2006, “Prohibition of Discrimination”
3. Skopje, Macedonia, 19-21 October 2006, “Right to peaceful enjoyment of property. Economic, social and cultural rights. Corruption”
4. Belgrade, Serbia, 1-3 March 2007, “Rights of vulnerable groups. Domestic violence. Protection of child and juvenile justice. Trafficking in human beings”
5. Sarajevo, BH, 29-31 March 2007, “Right to fair trial – Organised crime – Derogations and restrictions of human rights”.

One expert dialogue meeting with Supreme Courts judges was held in Belgrade, Serbia, 27-28 April 2007 and one evaluation meeting.

Three books were translated and published Christian Tomuschat, Human Rights Between Idealism and Realism, Oxford University Press, 2003; Martin Sheinin, Leading Cases of the Human Rights Committee, Abo Akademy, Turku, 2006; Karen Reid, A Practitioner’s Guide to the ECHR, Sweet & Maxwell, 2004.

Project web page http://www.seelawyers.net has been updated and maintained regularly during the whole project in four languages (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and English). The web page provides information about the project (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.