Fourteen participants, comprised of staff members of regional offices of the Ministry of Justice, authorised civil society organisations and attorneys had an opportunity to learn about the changes in the free legal aid system to be introduced by a new Law on Free Legal Aid at a cascade training that took place in Gevgelija on 18-19 April.

The new law expands the scope of free legal aid thereby giving the chance to more citizens to apply and be eligible for free legal aid, prescribes clear roles for stakeholders in the process and should lead to more efficient processing of free legal aid applications.

The sessions were delivered by national trainers, Ministry of Justice staff members trained under a Training of Trainers session, organised by the Council of Europe in December 2018. The trainers used training materials developed by Council of Europe consultants within the scope of the Action. The training materials are gender-sensitive and take into consideration the rights and needs of vulnerable groups. With the support of one international and one national mentor, the trainers successfully delivered a training that was interactive and facilitated peer exchange.

The sessions were organised within the action “Support to legal aid reforms”, which is part of the programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey", co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.