On October 5-6, 2024, the USAID Rule of Law Program (“the Program”) and the Legal Aid Service (LAS) trained 23 LAS lawyers on how to bring human cases in front of the appropriate international human rights bodies. 

These lawyers were from Tbilisi, Batumi, Poti, Akhaltsikhe, Mtskheta, Zestaphoni, Gori, and Ozurgeti.

Led by human rights expert Besarion Bokhashvili, the training provided insights into the structure of critical international bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and UN treaty bodies such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

The training gave the lawyers an understanding of the procedures they must follow to file and litigate cases in front of these bodies. For example, participants learned about the standard admissibility criteria outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) necessary for petitioners to successfully apply to the European Court of Human Rights.  

In another part of the training, the lawyers learned how to file cases in front of relevant UN treaty bodies. They learned the admissibility criteria for those bodies.  They conducted analysis of the admissibility rules of the ECtHR and the UN treaty bodies. Before leaving the training, the lawyers received practical suggestions for how to file applications at these bodies.

Giorgi Chkheidze, Chief of Party for the Program, opened the training by noting the critical role the LAS plays in supporting socially vulnerable groups. LAS Deputy Director Nino Meladze, in her opening comments. explained how important these types of trainings are to improving the skills and capacity of LAS lawyers.