Last year, the School managed to make a significant contribution in the field of practical training to strengthen access to justice both in our country and abroad.
31 non-governmental organizations, 507 people from 22 regions of Ukraine, 25 participants from Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia and Poland took part in nine programs of the Ukrainian School of Practical Knowledge on Access to Justice. 5 training courses were implemented, 7 studies in the field of access to justice, 17 educational webinars and masterclasses were conducted, 2 analytical reports organized by the Street Law Festival and Pro Bono week were translated into Ukrainian.
In 2020, the Community Advisors Program team has created a training course for mentors who are now conducting expert support of participants and participants during the main course. This year it is planned to develop an interactive online course for training advisers.
Thanks to the Kyiv Legal Empowerment Practical Program (KyivLEPP), five teams from Ukraine, Poland, North Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan and Kenya have developed models for solving access to justice problems in their countries.
Pro Bono Lab has developed a training video course “Legal Empowerment of Non-governmental Organizations”. 31 social initiatives took part in it, and another 10 have already applied for the second set.
The Legal Empowerment of communities Program covered 11communities in nine regions of Ukraine last year and helped create four projects of local legal assistance programs.
The Legal IT Hub team and partners have formulated a list of useful tools for working on-line and remote webinars, as well as a collection of cybersecurity tips for organizations during the remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team of the Program “Interactive law education “Street Law” managed to comprehensively explore a new direction – financial services and protection of financial services consumers. As a result, the first Street Law Festival “FIN $KILLS$ was organized online and within the festival interactive lessons and presentations of legal education videos shot by students took place.
In 2020, the Protection against discrimination Program expanded its network of advocates, advocates against discrimination and hate crimes. More than 20 lawyers who are able to protect clients in such matters are now working throughout Ukraine.
To provide high-quality free legal assistance in matters of civil and administrative legal relations, the Laboratory of Initiatives to Expand Access to Justice for HIV-Vulnerable Groups conducted 5 trainings for 130 employees of free legal aid centers.
At the end of last year, a new program was introduced to the School, which aims to develop a network of monitors of the national preventive mechanism (NPM).
All this was implemented due to the cooperation of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Coordination Center for Legal Aid Provision, the Legal Development Network, the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation, the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine, the Regional Center for Human Rights, the Law Club PRAVOKATOR Network, the ZMINA Human Rights Center, the Association of Public Advisors of Ukraine, Kyiv Legal Hackers, Namati, The Global Network for Public Interest Law (PILnet).
The School Program also could not be implemented without the support of the Charles Stewart Mott International Renaissance Foundation, 100% Life Charity Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development within the framework of a grant provided by the USAID Financial Sector Transformation Project, Freedom House, Inc. in Ukraine.