Legal exchange and mutual learning between asylum practitioners to promote fundamental rights in the EU (LEAP)

 

Project summary

The project’s main objectives are to promote the collaboration and exchange of information among legal practitioners and decision makers as well as to promote the rights and principles laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (“the Charter”) in the field of asylum.

In order to obtain these objectives a number of activities will be carried out including four national trainings, an international conference and an ELENA Coordinators Meeting. These events will foster cooperation between different legal practitioners and increase their knowledge of the Charter in the context of asylum. There will also be a pan-European study examining how important EU asylum judgments are being implemented across the EU with a specific emphasis on judgments that interpret the Charter. This project will also develop the European Database on Asylum Law (“EDAL”), and thus increase the exchange of legal information and judgments among practitioners and judiciary. Furthermore it will produce legal blogs and information notes, which will explain the impact of these judgments as well as how the Charter should be applied in the area of asylum.

It is expected that at the end of this project more legal professionals from different backgrounds will have an in-depth understanding of the Charter’s rights and principles and how it affects the new asylum acquis. There will also be better collaboration amongst legal professionals through the national and international trainings, as well as through the development of the ELENA Network. There will be greater dissemination of EU judgments and national judgments of importance with particular emphasis on the Charter which will increase its use and can assist in ensuring higher protection standards for those in need of international protection.

The project is coordinated by ECRE in partnership with:

  • The Hungarian Helsinki Committee
  • The Irish Refugee Council
  • Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
  • UNHCR is an Associate partner

The project runs over two years, starting in February 2015.



With financial support from the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Union