Formation/Cours

General:

• To provide information on international human rights sources, systems, standards and relevant issues.
• To encourage the development of practical skills for the future professionals.
• To sensitize participants to their particular role in protecting and promoting human rights and their own potential for affecting human rights in their future professional duties.
• To understand the human rights principles, institutions, processes and practices, issues and methods.

Course specific:

• Familiarise with European and international human rights standards and protection mechanisms
• Obtain a comparative perspective on international human rights instruments
• Understand the interplay between the various international and regional instruments and their concrete use for the purpose of human rights litigation
• Acquire skills of human rights litigation at European level
• Know where to search for more in-depth information and use the resources provided.

Module 1 – Litigating Human Rights Cases at the International Level: CoE, EU, and UN Protection Systems

Module 2 – Litigating Human Rights Cases at the International Level: Human Rights Litigation in Practice

Module 1 (8h)

Litigating Human Rights Cases at the International Level: CoE, EU, and UN Protection Systems

Session 1 (23 January): The Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): avenues for human rights litigation

• Overview of the Council of Europe (CoE): Mandate, institutions, and key activities.
• Introduction to the CoE treaties and their monitoring bodies: Subject matter and implementation mechanisms.
• The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): Role, structure, and functioning.
• Overview of the procedure before the ECtHR

Session 2 (30 January): The EU and the UN: avenues for human rights litigation

• Overview of the United Nations (UN) protection system: Role, subject matter, and implementation mechanisms of UN treaties and their monitoring bodies.
• The EU Framework: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU Charter); raising a complaint under the Charter before national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
• The UN Human Rights Commitee: Role, structure and functioning
• Overview of the individual communication procedure

Module 2 (16h)

Litigating Human Rights Cases at the International Level: Human Rights Litigation in Practice

Session 1 (06 February): Human Rights in Litigation: Hard Law and Soft Law Perspectives

• The ECtHR perspective

  • Absolute and relative rights
  • Positive and negative obligations
  • Interpretative doctrines in the ECtHR system
  • The UN Human Rights Committee perspective

    • Immediate obligations and derogations under the ICCPR
    • Non-derogable rights
    • Duties to respect, protect, ensure
    • General Comments as interpretative tools
    • Use of comparative law, other international instrument, soft law standards

Session 2 (13 February): Bringing a Case Before the ECtHR

• Practical aspects of lodging a complaint before the ECtHR: Rules on procedure and admissibility criteria
• The protection against refoulement in the ECtHR system

  • Focus on: Requests for Interim Measures
  • Case studies

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• Prearation for the Grand Chamber hearing in the case Tergek v. Türkiye: freedom of information in the ECHR system

Session 3 (20 February): Bringing a Case Before the UN Human Rights Committee

• Practical aspects of lodging an individual communication: Rules on procedure and admissibility criteria
• The life cycle of an individual communication: From admissibility to adjudication and implementation
• The protection against refoulement in the ICCPR system

  • Focus on: Requests for Provisional Measures
  • Case studies

Visit to Strasbourg (4 March): Attendance at the ECtHR Grand Chamber hearing for the case Tergek v. Türkiye (no. 39631/20)

Session 4 (11 March): Bringing a Case Before the ECtHR or the UN Human Rights Committee? Closing remarks

• Follow-up discussion on Tergek v. Türkiye: Key takeaways

• Cas