Participants shall acquire knowledge of the substantive law of the European Convention of Human Rights as well as the ability to present human rights claims effectively in practice.

The Convention will be presented within the context of international human rights law. It is also possible to include, if necessary, instruments in other fields, i.e. refugee law, prevention of torture or minority rights.

Seminars Content 

MOST seminars rest on a number of basic components: they include 

• an introductory session positioning the European Convention of Human Rights within the international and domestic law system  
• theory and practice of the control procedure with particular emphasis on admissibility criteria before the Court  
• a large amount of visual material being distributed in Russian and/or English  
• case exercises in small working groups  
• and finally a moot court, in order to enact a 'real' case.  

Seminars can also include more specific subjects as for example pre-trial detention and Artt. 3 and 5 ECHR, the right to a fair and public trial, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom from discrimination, the prohibition of torture or the protection against expulsion. Specific arrangements can be made to include further topics. 

If further questions arise out of the participants' work after the seminar has been concluded, MOST will try its best to answer those. It does, however, not engage in legal counselling in the strict sense. 

Organisation 

Although MOST will certainly, if needed, help to obtain adequate funding for the seminar (e.g. by pointing their partners towards potential funds), it does otherwise not see itself capable of carrying out any substantial work involved with finding the finances for all the seminars. This work will have to be done by the partners addressing themselves to for example the Council of Europe or the European Commission. 

For example MOST has already been successfully included in the 1998 and 1999 budget of the Council of Europe for a number of seminars in Russia, Latvia and elsewhere. 

The organisation of the seminar itself, i.e. invitation, bookings etc. will also have to be done by the partners in the region. 

Participants 

The courses will mainly address lawyers who are interested in human rights (for example attorneys acting for individuals or non-governmental organisations as well as academics, judges, public prosecutors and other public officials), but are of course also open to people with no legal background.