The Legal Center organized a training for trainers at the Hilton Hotel in Podgorica from January 24th to 26th, aimed at improving advocacy skills for the economic and social rights of vulnerable foreigners.
Trainers Peter Skerbis and Ivan Kocovski shared their knowledge with participants from across the region, including representatives of non-governmental organizations, human rights institutions, and ombudsmen.
Highlights included:
– Introduction to fundamental rights: definitions of human rights, types, obligations, legal foundations, and monitoring mechanisms.
– Identification of persons in need of protection: obligations of EU member states, the principle of “non-refoulement,” stakeholder roles, and differences between asylum seekers and refugees.
– Collective expulsions and non-discrimination: prohibition of collective expulsion, fair treatment, and discriminatory profiling.
– Protection of migrants’ human rights in vulnerable situations.
– Right to life and prohibition of torture.
– Protection of migrants in smuggling and human trafficking.
All of the above were part of the “Inclusion of Foreigners in the Western Balkans – Access to Social and Economic Rights (FOSTER)” project, a regional initiative of seven civil society organizations united in the Balkans Resettlement and Migration Council (BRMC) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) to address common migration challenges in the Western Balkans region, focusing on the fundamental human rights of various vulnerable groups of migrants and foreigners, especially their access to social and economic rights. The project is funded by the European Union.
