The activity envisions the reinforcement of the human rights forum established by the Supreme Judicial Council in the framework of the project “Support to the Supreme Judicial Council related to capacity building and improving the efficiency of the judiciary”, funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, as a sustainable information exchange platform and expert assistance in the field of human rights.
The Forum is viewed to encompass judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates and experts with in-depth knowledge and skills in applying fundamental standards. They will take part in the NIJ training activities on fundamental rights and will provide expert support to their colleagues in their day-to-day work, when there is a need for specialized expertise in the field.
This activity will be implemented in partnership with the Norwegian Courts Administration.
NIJ Forum on Human Rights
The NIJ project “Modern learning environment for judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates and other legal professionals”, funded under the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (NFM) 2014-2021, envisages strengthening and upgrading the Human Rights Forum, established by the Supreme Judicial Council during the previous NFM programming period, as a sustainable platform for information exchange and expert support in the field of fundamental rights protection.
The Human Rights Forum is an effective and sustainable tool for planning the overall training activities of the Institute in line with the fundamental rights. The NIJ Forum functions through established communities that are assigned specific tasks in the field of the rule of law, ethics and professional conduct, justice for children, protection of fundamental rights and various aspects of law enforcement.
The following professional communities have been established within the Forum on Human Rights:
– Judicial ethics and professional conduct;
– Justice for children;
– Protection of human rights in civil, criminal and administrative law context.
The Human Rights Forum also hosts a group for the development of structured training content of self-learning resources (manuals, guides and handbooks) to support the planning and implementation of the NIJ training activities.
The Forum communities are built on a multi-professional basis and include magistrates, employees from institutions with relevant competences, NGO representatives and other professionals with in-depth knowledge and experience.
The main function of the human rights protection communities is related to planning the NIJ training activities in accordance with the fundamental standards for human rights protection and information exchange.
As of 10.03.2023, the Forum members amounted to 126.
The NIJ Justice for Children Community is developing a self-learning course on juvenile rights in the criminal justice process
In connection with the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, promulgated in the State Gazette No. 48/02.06.2023, and the change in the regulation on criminal justice for minors introduced by them (in force from 01.09.2023). ), the Justice for Children Community of the National Institute of Justice is developing a self-learning course focused on the rights of minors involved in criminal proceedings, with the goal to meet the needs for specialized training in this field, of judges, prosecutors and investigators.
In addition to the self-learning resource, the National Institute of Justice is preparing a series of training activities to ensure the training of law enforcement bodies in the field of children’s rights, which will be conducted in the period October – December 2023.
The self-learning course will be available on the e-Learning Portal of the NIj from 1 September 2023, and upon successful completion the participants will receive an automatically generated certificate.
23 judges, prosecutors and investigating magistrates took part in the training for trainers on “Judicial Ethics and Integrity”
On 20 and 21 June 2023, the National Institute of Justice held a training for trainers on “Judicial Ethics and Integrity”, which was attended by 23 members of professional ethics commissions of the judiciary.
The teaching team included Mr. Jeremy Cooper, author of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Manual for Trainers on Judicial Conduct and Ethics, and Rositsa Toncheva, judge at the Varna Court of Appeal. In their presentations the trainers focused on the universal principles of judicial ethics, professional integrity, judicial case law in relation to the Code of Ethical Conduct for Bulgarian Magistrates.
The training was organized under the NIJ project “Modern learning environment for judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates and other legal professionals”, implemented with the support of the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.
Specialized training for judges, prosecutors and investigating magistrates
on current criminal justice issues for children
In connection with the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, promulgated in the State Gazette No. 48/02.06.2023, effective from 01.09.2023, the National Institute of Justice developed a self-study course “Introduction to Justice for Children. Current criminal law aspects”, focusing on the rights of minors involved in criminal proceedings. The training was developed by experts from the Justice for Children community and aims at meeting the needs for specialized training of judges, prosecutors and investigators in this field.
The training is a certification course and is published on the Institute’s e-learning portal, under the section: “Self-Study” (https://e-learning.nij.bg/course/view.php?id=1303). Judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates, and other legal rofessionals who are interested in the materials can take part in the course by logging into their personal Portal account and selecting “Enroll Me” from here.
The training ends with a test, upon successful completion of which the participant obtains a certificate.
The course is developed under the project “Modern learning environment for judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates and other legal professionals”, implemented with the financial support of the Justice Programme, Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.
More information about the training can be found in the short introductory film or by contacting the contact person: Yanislava Andreeva, y.andreeva@nij.bg, phone. 02 9359 162