Europe in Law accomplishes its mission of strengthening and disseminating the universal values among the bodies of public administration, local self-government, the judiciary, the wider jurist community, the civil society and the larger public by capacity building at individual, institutional and societal levels.
ELA’s capacity-building efforts aim to develop favourable conditions for individuals to build and enhance their knowledge of human rights and the European integration processes to better participate in decision-making at both domestic and European levels. A good example of such a capacity-building initiative is ELA’s assistance to Armenian journalists in enhancing their knowledge of the right to freedom of expression as reflected in the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Having conducted a thorough assessment of the needs of the Armenian Bar Chamber and the judiciary, ELA has identified an important training gap that needs speedy action if everyone within the jurisdiction of the Armenian State is to enjoy fully and unequivocally his/her right to freedom of expression – the media law standards. Insufficient knowledge and understanding of these standards has in most cases resulted in inadequate level of protection of the fundamental human right to freedom of expression in Armenia.
To address this gap, the ELA’s team has designed a workshop for barristers and judges similar to the one it has previously conducted for the media workers. In the course of this workshop, the above stakeholders were familiarized in more detail with the relevant media law standards. Apart from ELA’s team, participation of a number of renowned media law experts from the Council of Europe countries was secured to enable the Armenian judges and barristers to engage in a professional and mutually beneficial exchange on the freedom of expression discourse in Europe. ELA has produced a series of video trainings on the electoral and referendum law and processes in the period preceding the 2015 constitutional referendum and the 2017 parliamentary elections. Apart from this since 2012 ELA’s experts have been training observers, proxies, media representatives and the wider public in electoral law and processes in the period preceding almost all national and local elections. ELA ‘s experts have also conducted trainings in the area of the right to freedom of assembly, right to afair trial, right to liberty and security of a person, etc.
We offer training to all the interested parties across the whole spectrum of the ELA’s priorities which include the right to a fair trial, freedom from torture, the right to privacy, the right to freedom of assembly, the processes of European integration, etc.