EHRAC-LES Training Seminar, Baku, 2010

EHRAC staff and members from the Legal Education Society.

Session on the right to a fair trial.

The programme began with a short presentation about EHRAC and its work to give the participants a sense of what expertise and assistance EHRAC could potentially offer them in the future.  This was followed by substantive sessions on the right to a fair trial and just satisfaction.  These topics were selected on the basis of questionnaires completed by the participants in advance of the seminar.  Throughout the programme specific time was allocated for questions and open discussion of the topics.

All the participants received specially prepared handouts to accompany the sessions and copies of EHRAC publications, including the EHRAC Bulletin and Russian-language manual on taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights.

Session on just satisfaction.

Q & A session.

Overall the feedback showed unanimous agreement that the seminar had been useful.  Some participants found one session to be more beneficial than the others, but most found the whole seminar helpful:

“Of course the seminar was useful. I would say almost everything was relevant especially the discussions on property.”

“The session on just satisfaction was very important for me and I will use what I learnt in my future activities.”

“All parts were relevant and I will use what I have learnt in my practice.”

Feedback

Feedback from the session on right to a fair trial:

“...a very informative session with well-organised interactive participation of the attendees.”

“...this session was very important because fair trial standards are not respected in Azerbaijan.”

Feedback from the session on just satisfaction:

“...an interesting and important topic, since the question of just satisfaction is often sidestepped.”

“...this was the most effective part of the seminar.” 

Staff members of the Sumgait Regional Legal

Resource Centre.

When asked for any further comments, the resounding response from the Azerbaijani lawyers was for more help:

“It would be great to conduct this kind of seminar frequently.”

“...it would be great to organise longer training seminars.” 

“Please do not cut contact with us.” 

There were also requests for training seminars on other substantive areas:

“other ECHR articles would also be interesting, such as Articles 9, 10, 14, etc.” 

 “Azerbaijan is developing and we may be faced with all kinds of unexpected issues. Then we will need everything that you have taught us as much as we need water and air.”