On 19-20 March 2018, judges-trainers from Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv and representatives of the National School of Judges of Ukraine (NSJU) had a training on the online format of the distant course for judges “Environmental protection and human rights” developed by International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law”.
Iryna Voytiuk, a member of EPL Executive Board stated: “Same as judges-trainers were pioneers regarding dissemination of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, now judges-trainers of the National School of Judges of Ukraine are pioneers in dissemination of the practice of application of the Aarhus Convention that helps judges in considering environmental cases. As usually, the National School of Judges is a leader that choses as partners the best representatives of the public. In this case it is EPL.
Oksana Polna, the director of Lviv Regional Branch of the NSJU stressed that during the recent two years themes of human rights and environmental protection have been included into standard curricula for judges of economic and administrative courts. “We receive positive feedback from judges that go through such training and obtain skills of using relevant norms in considering certain categories of cases”, she mentioned.
Tamara Zakrevska, the teacher-coordinator of the NSJU mentioned: “Since 2014, the National School of Judges has been actively implementing distant education for judges. The number of course is growing annually. The developers create high quality materials. In the course of online trainings, judges not only do practical assessments but also have a possibility to communicate on forums not limited by the theme of a course. Such form of education helps to economize funds and time that are spent for classroom training.
The judges summarized that the developed course will help to not only get and learn to use new knowledge but will also allow to change the world perception of judges regarding the need to protect the environment, to maintain the principle of sustainable development, which will for sure be noticeable when they consider such category of cases.
Ahead are two trainings for judges and the launch of the online course on the web-site of the NSJU.
The training was held within the project “Effective justice for protection of the environment and environmental rights of citizens» implemented by Justice Sector Reform Programe «New Justice» funded by the US Agency of International Development.
