OSCE

The "Support for the improvement legal education and development of human rights education in Ukraine” project

Project timing: February-December 2013

Purpose of the project : improvement of legal education and development of human rights education in Ukraine

Brief description of activity:

The "Support for the Improvement of Legal Education and Development of Human Rights Education in Ukraine" project was designed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine on request and in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Commissioner of the Supreme Council of Ukraine for Human Rights, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Lviv National Ivan Franko University and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The project was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on May 30, 2013.

The goal of the project is to improve legal education in Ukraine by creating the necessary initial conditions for improving methods and using modern approaches to teaching law disciplines. To achieve this goal the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine in cooperation with project partners has undertaken the following activities during 2013:

The Component 1 was aimed at the further development of legal education in accordance with modern human rights-based approaches and the introduction of an approach based on human rights to the educational process.. Within this component the following activities were conducted:

In accordance with the model training programs designed in 2012, from June to December 2013, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine prepared draft educational books for such educational disciplines as philosophy of law, legal ethics, legal analysis and writing. The work was performed with the participation of teachers from leading law schools. Also, during June-December 2013, seven meetings of working groups were held to discuss the content and correlation of training manuals in the following areas: human rights, philosophy of law, general theory of law, legal ethics, legal analysis and writing. Several meetings on the elaboration of recommendations on legal education and access to the legal profession in Ukraine were held as well.

The conference "Legal Education in Ukraine: Content and Methodology for Teaching Legal Disciplines" was held in Kyiv on November 14-16, 2013. The conference was attended by leading scientists and lawyers.

The conference became a platform for wide discussion of recommendations on the content and methods of teaching law disciplines and quality assurance of higher legal education in general.

At the conference participants also discussed the creation of a working group on the formation of a state legal education standard in Ukraine. OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Ukrainian Legal Foundation acted as сo-organizers of the conference.

On November 29 - December 1, 2013, for students of law schools and young lawyers the Second International Forum on Practice of the European Court of Human Rights was held in Lviv. In particular, among the speakers of the Forum there were judges of the European Court of Human Rights, well-known Ukrainian lawyers and scientific workers. That forum was co-organized by: OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Branch of the Ukrainian Bar Association in Lviv region, Faculty of Law of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv Laboratory of Human and Civil Rights of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, Students League of the Ukrainian Bar Association, Lviv City Council and the Coordinating Council of Young Lawyers of Ukraine under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

On December 6, 2013, the 2nd International Scientific and Practical Conference "Legal principles of guaranteeing and protecting human and civil rights and freedoms" was held in Poltava.

The conference was organized jointly by the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine, the National University " National University Yaroslav the Wise Law Academy of Ukraine", the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine and the Poltava Law Institute. Law school students of leading law schools of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Georgia took part in it.

Within the component 2, aimed at the development of human rights education in Ukraine and raising awareness among children and young people on human rights, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, together with project partners, supported a number of activities, in particular:

All-Ukrainian competition of school drawings "My rights", dedicated to the Day of Child Protection on June 1. More than 12,000 pupils from all over Ukraine took part in the competition.
In order to improve knowledge of Ukrainian students on various fields of law, human rights and the rule of law, All-Ukrainian Autumn Law School took place in Sevastopol in September 11-15, 2013. More than 80 students from 12 higher educational institutions took part in this law school.
All-Ukrainian Week of Law was held in 2013. Within the framework of the event the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine supported the arranging of the International Law Contest named after V.M. Koretsky.
Human Rights Training for Teachers and Civil Servants was held in Lviv on December 6-8, 2013. Based on the human rights guidelines for children prepared in 2011, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, conducted three-day training on the methodology for teaching human rights to children. More than 30 teachers of secondary schools from all over Ukraine, representatives of institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education, specialists of local departments of justice involved in law-education activities among children and youth, as well as representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine participated in the event. The training program included the theory and evolution of human rights, as well as international instruments and mechanisms for their protection. In order to raise awareness of human rights among young people, in November-December 2013 in Kyiv and Lviv the corresponding lessons were conducted. More than 130 students aged 14–16 took part in that event.
In order to strengthen knowledge about international practices in the introduction of human rights education, in September-October 2013 an annual meeting on implementation of commitments in the field of human dimension of OSCE was held in Warsaw. The specialists of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine took part in it.

Project "supporting development of legal education and education in human rights in Ukraine"

Timing: April-December 2014

Purpose of the project: development of legal education and human rights education in Ukraine.

Brief description of activity:

The "Support for the development of legal education and human rights education in Ukraine " project was designed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine on request and in cooperation with the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Commissioner of the Supreme Council of Ukraine for Human Rights. The project was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on April 22, 2014.

The goal of the project is to develop legal education and human rights education in Ukraine by creating the necessary basis for improving methods and applying modern approaches for teaching law disciplines. To achieve this goal the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine in cooperation with the Lviv National Ivan Franko University, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Commissioner of the Supreme Council of Ukraine for Human Rights, and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy have undertaken the following activities during 2014:

Within the framework of the component on improving legal education in Ukraine, in line with the model training programs and manuals drawn up in 2010-2012, during July-December 2014, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and with the participation of national experts, five summer and winter schools were held for training teachers of Ukrainian law schools on criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law and the general theory of law. Teachers, who took part in those trainings, were selected on a competitive basis and after training they received corresponding certificates.

In 2014, in order to create necessary initial conditions for strengthening quality to teach the legal disciplines, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine published 3,000 copies of educational books on general administrative law, criminal law and criminal procedure. Those work books were distributed among 29 higher education institutions.

Also in May-October 2014 the work group meeting was held to agree the philosophical and legal foundations for development of human rights institution as well as to approve the terminology for the educational books of the projects.

On October 29, at the request and on the basis of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, a round table on the development of national legal education standards was held. The deans of the leading law schools took part in that event. The participants discussed the provisions of the new Law "On Higher Education" on development of state education standards, expressed their views concerning the content of the legal education standard and existing problems of legal education quality, and also discussed the question of the autonomy of law schools as well as the formation of association of law schools deans. On the results of discussion it was decided to create a work group on the development of legal education standards and initiate the formation of a association of law schools deans.

Within the framework of the component on development of human rights education, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine supported a number of measures aimed at raising public legal knowledge and introducing a human rights-based approach to general secondary education. At the same time the heightened attention was given to providing free legal assistance to those who most need it in times of crisis.

In particular, on November 20-21, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine agreed to hold the Research and Practice Seminar on emerging role of legal clinics in Ukraine in the challenging problems of our time. The representatives of about forty law clinics in Ukraine discussed the status procedure for combatants, benefits for combatants and families of the bereaved, receiving disability, etc. The participants also discussed the new law on the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons, combatants and their families. As a result of the seminar there was established an informal network for providing free legal assistance to combatants and internally displaced persons. For another thing, in order to improve the work of legal clinics in Ukraine, the congress of legal clinics in Ukraine was conducted. The congress approved the standards of clinical legal education and practical steps for their implementation.

In order to increase legal awareness of the society the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, together with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, endorsed the All-Ukrainian Law Week 2014 during which more than 1,000 citizens received free legal advice.

Students and young people were given the opportunity to increase their knowledge through participation in the master classes of prominent lawyers. Also the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine endorsed holding All-Ukrainian Autumn Law School for Students and International legal competition named after V.N. Koretsky.

In order to introduce education based on human rights, to general secondary education the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner held trainings on human rights for about 100 teachers of general education institutions and the representatives of institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education from all over Ukraine.

Such the trainings were held in Zhytomyr, Lutsk, Kyiv and Kharkiv in August-December 2014. They were based on an interactive methodology developed by the experts from the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

That training program included the theory and evolution of human rights, international instruments and mechanisms for their protection as well as practical exercises to consolidate the obtain information and skills. Also at the trainings the necessary recommendations on the use of the educational book "Human Rights for Children: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers" were given.

To improve school student knowledge of human rights the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine endorsed the series of thematic studies and tournaments, in particular, All-Ukrainian tournament of young legists and also prepared some informational materials together with the the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner.