Defence lawyers and civil servants have set about training lawyers who provide legal advice to members of the public. During the year the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union [UHHRU] will be running a number of training courses and seminars which will address current legal issues and effective ways of resolving them.

In January this year representatives of the UHHRU Public Advice Centres and of legal aid centres were able to find out the answer to a number of questions which constantly arise in their work, including the following:

Can a civic organization defend the rights not only of its members, but also of people who are not members of the organization? How in general are the activities of civic associations changing in new conditions?

How can you get a court ruling enforced where the claimant is a state body or state enterprise?

Will the European Court of Human Rights help in enforcing the ruling of a domestic court?

The training was run by members of the State Registration Service of Ukraine, the Government’s Representative at the European Court of Human Rights, as well as practising defence lawyers.

UHHRU invites people interested in participating to contact one of the public advice centre or the Centre for Free Legal Aid.

The seminars are run by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union with the financial support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation.