Training Yugoslav Lawyers to Appear Before UN Treaty Bodies

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, with cooperation from OSCE, organised a training course for Yugoslav lawyers to appear before UN treaty bodies, held over four days at Hotel Metropol in Belgrade. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) adopted international instruments in the framework of the UN human rights protection system, which sets procedures for supervising the fulfillment of members’ human rights obligations. With these changes, individuals, citizens’ groups or nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Yugoslavia are able to file communications with UN Committees (treaty bodies) directly or through their legal representatives. However, lawyers in Serbia are still unable to provide adequate legal aid to all interested parties due to a lack of human rights law education and practice.The objective of this project was to train a number of lawyers working in NGOs to act before the treaty bodies, and help them to initiate and conduct proceedings for the protection of the rights of FRY citizens. 34 participants included young lawyers and jurists, NGO activists and prominent human rights advocates.

Main themes of the course included:

• Sources of international human rights law (customary law, treaties, decisions of international organisations, general principles recognised by nations)
• The implementation of human rights (obligations of states, remedies, immediate and gradual implementation, prevention, human rights culture, international cooperation)
• International organisations and human rights
• The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
• The protection of human rights through the United Nation system
• UN treaty bodies
• UN procedures for filing human rights complaints
• Case admissibility
• Case Studies
• Moot courts
• The role of NGOs