Women’s Human Rights Training Institute 2018/19

Published by Ivona

Deadline: 13 July 2018
Open to: young lawyers from Central and Eastern European and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS)
Benefits: all expenses related to the selected participants attendance at the three sessions of the Institute are covered by the organizers

Description

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF), in cooperation with its main partners – the Advocates for Human Rights from Minnesota and Equality Now are pleased to announce the call for applications to participate in the training programme of the Seventh Round of the Women’s Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI-7), 2018-2019.

The Institute is a unique education and training programme founded in 2004 and is the first-of-its-kind advanced training programme aimed at building and developing the capacity of young lawyers from Central and Eastern European Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS) for litigation on women’s rights issues, including:

  • violence against women and domestic violence;
  • sexual and reproductive health and rights, and;
  • social and economic rights, and employment discrimination;
  • multiple discrimination;

The WHRTI provides the participants advanced and in-depth knowledge and practical exercises on women’s human rights protection in the four main areas noted above. The WHRTI improves their practical skills in legal writing and advocacy (in English) for development of strategic litigation in the region both at the national and international levels through the use of regional and universal human rights mechanisms such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Optional Protocol to ICCPR. The WHRTI also gives lawyers an opportunity to get acquainted with the EU standards in the field of equal treatment of women and men, including the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Eligibility

Twenty-five participants will be selected among practicing lawyers and legal counselors working with human rights or women’s rights NGOs in the region.

Successful applicants should:

  • have a substantial and sustainable professional interest and a demonstrated commitment to women’s human rights advocacy and/or litigation, and in using the legal instruments and litigation creatively to secure redress for women’s rights violations;
  • have a professional relationship/affiliation for at least one year prior to the application with an institution/organization that has the capacity to litigate women’s rights cases or has experience with litigation and preferably focuses in her/his work on women’s human rights;
  • have demonstrated interest and at minimum some basic legal knowledge and understanding of the international universal and the regional human rights law, legal standards and instruments;
  • be committed and available to actively participate in all the three sessions of the Institute (approximately one week every six months) and to be involved in the intersessional work;
  • have fluency in written and spoken English, and advanced English language comprehension.

Benefits

All expenses related to the selected participants attendance at the three sessions of the Institute are covered by the organizers as follows:

Tuitions fees: for the participants who have been selected and who are fulfilling their training tasks in due time.

Travel costs: airplane/train/bus tickets from the country of residence at the time of selection to and from Bulgaria – reimbursement is based on the original receipts, tickets, boarding passes;

Transfer from and to the airport/railway station/ bus station at arrival and departure;

Hotel accommodation: for the days of the training sessions – in shared rooms for two participants;

Full board meals, including coffee breaks/or equivalent per diems for the days of the training sessions according to the announced agenda;

Training materials and additional literature related to the training curriculum of WHRTI.

How to Apply?

The completed WHRTI application form and all supporting documents (see the application form for details) must be sent to the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) by 13 July 2018, to the following e-mail address: office@bgrf.org

The applicants short-listed for an interview will be contacted by 24 August 2018;

The interviews with the pre-selected applicants will be held online by a representative of the WHRTI team;

The final selection will be done by 20 September 2018;

The First session of the WHRTI 7 is planned to be conducted within the period 15 – 25 November 2018.

For more information please visit the official website.