The course is designed for lawyers, human rights defenders, opposition activists, protest participants, and those who have been denied political asylum or a residence permit.

Course Learning Outcomes:

During the course, students will learn how to use international human rights protection mechanisms in cases involving refugees and prisoners, how to fill out applications to the ECtHR and the UN Human Rights Committee, and how to assess their prospects.

Course Topics:

1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights
2. An application to the ECtHR as a tool for protecting human rights
3. The UN Human Rights Committee: its possibilities and limits
4. Practical workshop: preparing applications to the ECtHR and the UN Human Rights Committee: typical mistakes, working with application forms, admissibility, exhaustion of domestic remedies
5. Comparative analysis: the effectiveness and limitations of international mechanisms

During the course, the following skills will be developed:

Students will complete independent homework assignments on filling out the ECtHR application form, the UN Human Rights Committee application form, and a request for interim measures.

Requirements for the Final Course Project:

The course concludes with a final qualification project, which may take one of the following forms:

• analysis of a specific judgment of the ECtHR or decision of the UN Human Rights Committee;
• a prepared application to the ECtHR or the UN Human Rights Committee in a specific case;
• assessment of the effectiveness of using the ECtHR or UN Human Rights Committee mechanism for the protection of human rights, based on the example of a specific country.

The defense may be presented either as a presentation or as a completed application to the ECtHR or the UN Human Rights Committee.