Trial Monitoring Training in Central Asia: Call for Applications

The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) and International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) are calling for applications from human rights defenders, activists and practitioners who wish to benefit from legal training on trial monitoring. The two-day online training, conducted by leading experts from the CFJ and IPHR, is designed to provide participants from the five Central Asian republics with knowledge and practical skills to monitor and respond to trials that pose a high risk of human rights violations.

Over the course of the programme, participants will:

  • Acquire in-depth knowledge about the right to a fair trial and international standards on fairness of judicial proceedings. Specific topics to be addressed include the due process rights of defendants, access to legal documents, public access to court hearings, reasonable timeframes for trials as well as relevant case law.
  • Acquire strong practical skills on how to analyze the fairness of a trial and its compliance with local and international standards, how to behave in court when monitoring a trial and how to produce a trial monitoring report.
  • Have access to a toolbox of monitoring resources, relevant legal instruments and case law and examples of strong trial monitoring reports useful for participants who will be working on real-life assignments on the right to a fair trial.
  • Receive mentoring during the post-training period to support participants’ concrete monitoring work on trial proceedings in Central Asian countries.

To be selected as training participants, applicants should be able to demonstrate:

  • An awareness of the human rights situation in their country and in Central Asia.
  • Knowledge of international human rights law and domestic criminal law as well as understanding of legal frameworks and standards concerning judicial proceedings.
  • Motivation to implement the acquired practical skills through future monitoring work.
  • A commitment to human rights issues: participants with an established network in the human rights space are welcome to apply.
  • A working knowledge of English or Russian.

The first part of the training will begin on 27 November 2020. Participants will receive written training materials and have one week for reading and written preparation for the online meeting/live session. The online meeting will be held on 4 December 2020, from 09:00 – 12:00 CET.

The training will be held in English and Russian.


In order to register please fill out the application form before midnight CET on 24 November.


You can download this call for applications in pdf here.