Legal professionals from North Macedonia continue to advance their knowledge on anti-discrimination through the HELP course

Access to justice for victims of discrimination and the successful processing of anti-discrimination cases are fundamental to ensure a proper protection of human rights especially for the most vulnerable communities. The HELP course on anti-discrimination available in the HELP platform, constitutes an important resource offered to the legal professionals in the field, in the process of strengthening and harmonising relevant European standards regarding fight against discrimination. In this context 48 more lawyers and legal professionals in North Macedonia recently completed the course, bringing the overall number of trained representatives to 120, since it was introduced for the first time in Macedonian language in 2021, with the support of EU and Council of Europe.

The HELP Course on Anti-Discrimination is a joint initiative of the action ‘Combating hatred and intolerance in North Macedonia’ part of the EU and Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye III” programme, and the European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP). Modules related to the discrimination against Roma and the SOGI communities were developed in co-operation with the Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Unit and the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma issues.

The aim of the course is to provide a detailed, yet easily accessible, educational resource to promote understanding among domestic judges, prosecutors and lawyers in respect of the significant amount of relevant ECtHR case law.