On June 16-17, 2016, an annual platform conference of the Council of Europe Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) was held in Strasbourg, France. The theme of the conference was - "Leading the way towards national case law harmonization." Medea Gugeshashvili, Head of the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender of Georgia, and Ekaterine Datunaishvili, manager of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry-funded project "Support to the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender”, took part in the event at the invitation of the Council Europe.

Participants of the conference discussed best practices of various countries in terms of harmonized and consistent application of the European case law by national courts, methodological teaching aspects of the HELP program, themes of future trainings and availability of materials. 126 representatives of Council of Europe member states’ bar associations and national training institutes took part in the event.

In addition, a meeting was held with the Head of the HELP Secretariat, Natacha De Roeck, and the project manager of Human Rights National Implementation Division of the Council of Europe Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Mahir Mushteidzad. An agreement was reached at the meeting about engagement of the Human Rights Academy in the HELP platform, through which the Academy will hold trainings for various target groups, which will be awarded joint certificates of the Council of Europe and the Academy after completion of the trainings.

The HELP platform envisages electronic teaching format and its various thematic training-courses are translated into the languages of beneficiary countries (including Georgia). The course is of two types - distance learning for participants selected on the basis of predetermined criteria and self-education for anyone. Participation in this platform is an opportunity for the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender to actively contribute to promotion and implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights at the national level.