Announcements

The Institute is a unique initiative founded by the three partners in 2004 as a first-of-its-kind programme aimed at building the capacity of young lawyers from Central and Eastern European and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS) for litigation on women’s rights issues, including:

• violence against women,
• sexual and reproductive health and rights, and
• employment discrimination.

The Institute, organized by the BGRF in cooperation with its partners, has successfully completed three rounds: WHRTI 2004-2006, WHRTI 2007-2009 and WHRTI 2009-2011 (www.institute.bgrf.org), where we have trained over 58 lawyers.

The WHRTI provides participants in-depth knowledge in women’s human rights protectionin the three areas noted above.  The WHRTI provides practical skills for development of strategic litigation in the region both at the national and international levels through using regional and universal human rights mechanisms such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW as well asthe International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Optional Protocol to ICCPR. The WHRTI also gives lawyers an opportunity to get acquainted with the EU standards in the field of equal treatment of women and men, including the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Eligibility

Twenty participants will be selected among practicing lawyers and legal counselors working with human rights or women’s rights NGOs in the region. Successful applicants will:

• have a demonstrated commitment to women’s human rights advocacy, to using the law creatively to secure redress for women’s rights violations.
• have a professional relationship for at least one year prior to the application with an institution/organization that has capacity to litigate women’s rights cases or has experience with litigation and preferably focuses in its work on women’s human rights.
• have demonstrated interest and knowledge of international universal and regional human rights law.
• be committed to participate in the four sessions of the Institute (approximately one week every six months) and to be involved in the intersessional work.
• have fluency in written and spoken English, and advanced English language comprehension.

Application Procedures:

The completed WHRTI application form and all supporting documents (see the application form for details) must be sent to the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) by August 25th 2011, to the following e-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

or, by mail to:

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation
P.O.Box 938
1000 Sofia
Bulgaria

For further information (and to apply), please click here or download the application form