Second Session for Lawyers from Bar Associations, Trade Unions and NGOs in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia

From 28 January to 5 February 2006, INTERIGHTS and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland (HFHR) held the second session of a training for trainers programme (T4T2) on the EU Race (43/2000) and Framework Employment (78/2000) Directives for lawyers from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

The T4T2 was designed to transfer to participants pedagogical training skills and to help them to prepare detailed agendas for the national training sessions in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia which they will conduct in Spring 2006.

Participants had an opportunity to apply their knowledge of the EC Directives through their actual casework in a session run by discrimination experts Barbara Cohen and Margarita Ilieva about the best strategies of litigation of discrimination cases in the domestic jurisdictions.

Karolina Oponowicz introduced to participants the main principles and stages of building educational programs and assisted with formulating aims and objectives for the national sessions.

Lithuanian participant Jolanta Samuolyte	Lithuanian national group

Dieter Schindlauer engaged participants in a couple of ‘stronger’ awareness raising exercises and advised on their selection and methodology for the national training sessions.

Training methodology experts Lukasz Bojarski and Dieter Shindlauer delivered a session on methodology and reviewed the main methods of training. Through a number of interactive activities they facilitated participants in building national seminar programs that addressed five main elements: awareness raising, key concepts of Directives, national law, litigation strategies and Moot Court. During the course of the training, participants had an opportunity to test in a friendly atmosphere a part of the national seminar session and to use interactive training methods.

At the closing session Beth Fernandez (INTERIGHTS) together with Karolina Oponowicz (HFHR) examined and clarified the organisational and administrative questions regarding the national training sessions.

The second training for trainers session will be followed by four 4-day national training sessions. National trainings will be carried out by T4T participants in April/May 2006 in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The target group of the national training seminars will be practising lawyers and lawyers from Trade Unions and NGOs.

Materials from the Session

Agenda

Issues to Consider (Litigation Strategies Session)

Guidelines for a Case Study

First Session for Lawyers from Bar Associations, Trade Unions and NGOs in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia

From 28 September to 7 October 2005, INTERIGHTS and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland held the first session of a ‘training for trainers’ programme on the EU Race and Framework Directives (T4T1) for lawyers from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

The T4T1 session comprised training designed to raise awareness of participants about discrimination issues, and training on the substance of EC law. Topics covered included key concepts of EC non- discrimination law, issues of evidence and remedies involved in discrimination cases and other international instruments dealing with discrimination. Most of the training methods used in the session were interactive. Participants were actively engaged in carrying out individual and group tasks designed to help them assimilate concepts. A two-day Moot Court exercise at the end of the training session allowed participants to apply all gained knowledge and skills in a practical context.

As a part of the session, participants also visited four non-governmental organisations in Poland dealing with different discrimination issues.

Day 2 of the moot court session	Litigation workshop

The first training for trainers session was followed by a second session (T4T2) for the same participants. The sessions are intended to prepare participants to organise and deliver 4-day training sessions for lawyers in each of the target countries in 2006.

Materials from the Session

Agenda

EU Law Background Materials Book

Polish Handbook

Lithuanian Handbook

Latvian Handbook

Moot Court Hypo 1

Moot Court Hypo 2

All the participants at the first session. Photo courtesy of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

For further information, please contact Jolanta Samuolyte, tel: +44-20-7843-0481, E-Mail: jsamuolyte@interights.org or Karolina Oponowicz at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (www.hfhrpol.waw.pl), tel: +48-22-556-4445, E-mail: K.Oponowicz@hfhrpol.waw.pl

For further information on how the European Commission is combating discrimination, please see the European Commission's anti-discrimination website, the Information Campaign
'For Diversity - Against Discrimination', and the online anti-discrimination database.

This training session is supported by the European Community Action Programme to combat discrimination (2001-2006). This programme was established to support the effective implementation of new EU anti-discrimination legislation. The six-year Programme targets all stakeholders who can help shape the development of appropriate and effective anti-discrimination legislation and policies, across the EU-25, EFTA and EU candidate countries.

The Action Programme has three main objectives. These are:

-To improve the understanding of issues related to discrimination
-To develop the capacity to tackle discrimination effectively
-To promote the values underlying the fight against discrimination

For more information see the European Commission's anti-discrimination website.

The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use which might be made of the information in this publication.