EU to spend 500K euros to educate Belarusian judges, prosecutors

Arkadi Sytine, head of Eastern Partnership Programmatic Cooperation Framework (EaP PCF) Unite at the Council of Europe, presented the results of Eastern Partnership projects and said the European Union was set to allocate 500 000 euros to finance human rights-related projects. "The focus will be on three key areas: human rights education for professionals (lawyers, prosecutors, judges), human rights mainstreaming in the education system and enhancing the role of women in democratic processes," Sytine explained.

To improve the knowledge by Belarusian lawyers, judges and prosecutors of international human rights standards, the project participants will undergo trainings. Information materials will be translated into Russian and disseminated among the target audience.

The project will also set up distant education courses developed in the framework of the European Human Rights Education Program. The courses will help to learn how the European system of human rights defence and the European Court on Human Rights work. The course will be set up at the premises of Belarus State University (BSU) and the Institute for Further Education of Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers - also BSU-based.

The chair of Belarusian Popular Fron party Ryhor Kastusjou says he is tired of being surprised with the actions of the European Union. He describes investment into judges and prosecutors as a waste of money, because education courses are unable to change the work of the judicial system. Kastusjou said:

"The European Union allocates millions euros for various projects in Belarus, including for law-enforcement agencies. I cannot be more surprised. This is a waste of money. Do not expect our prosecutors and judges to change the way they work after some trainings. Unfortunately, we cannot influence that. Many Belarusian officials studied various aspects via European projects. However, they have implemented nothing from what they learned and what Europeans tried to to teach them."

Ryhor Kastusjou is confident it would be more useful to fund the work of independent civil society organizations. "I am surprised. The money that Europe allocates to pro-governmental structures in Belarus cannot be controlled. I have already told them that they should pay attention to this: this money is used for projects, but the government portrays this money as the money from the Presidential Administration. Nobody really knows that this is assistance from the European Union."

Gender equality, access of women to justice is one of the key issues that the grant will address. Under the project, a textbook for judges and prosecutors on gender equality will be published. It will deal with the issues of domestic violence, family law and discrimination at work. The textbook will contain chapters on the specifics of the gender equality situation in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia. However, there will be no separate chapter on Belarus. Why so?

Iryna Salamatsina, the leader of the Gender Route project, reckons Belarus' participation in the gender-related projects is purely formal in nature:

"In other EaP countries, work with lawyers, judges and prosecutors has been carried out for some years. They collect statistics and have some tangible numbers. In Belarus, no data on gender issues are systematically collected. Belarus is present in such reviews only technically. The fact that there is no separate chapter on Belarus proves that nobody works with factography. As long as Belarus collects no statistics on this problem, its participation in such programa remains a formality."

The Institute for Further Education of Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers is planned to set up education course on gender equality and access of women to justice. However, it is not clear who will teach.

"I cannot imagine who will teach the gender-related courses at the Institute for Further Education at BSU," says Іryna Salamatsina. Belarusian university has no specialization on gender or gender-related researche projects. Where do we get specialists from? What will we get in the end?"