The National Institute of Justice, in partnership with the Council of Europe, launched on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, the new online course under the HELP Programme entitled “Alternatives to Immigration Detention”. The event marked the beginning of the training for 86 legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, judicial assistants, court clerks, prosecutors’ consultants, lawyers providing state-guaranteed legal aid, and officers of the General Inspectorate for Migration.
The training programme was designed to support the effective implementation of alternatives to detention, in line with European and international human rights standards. Its main goal is to strengthen a well-informed legal community capable of promoting and efficiently applying alternative measures. At the same time, the course aims to enhance the competencies of justice practitioners in order to reduce unjustified recourse to deprivation of liberty and to encourage the use of detention alternatives that respect human dignity and improve migration management.
Speakers at the event included Giovanni Battista Celiento, Head of the Cooperation Programmes Division within the Directorate of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, and Ramona Strugariu, Director of the National Institute of Justice.
During the launch, Ana-Maria Telbis, Head of the HELP Programme, and Janeta Hanganu, lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, Unit for the Republic of Moldova, presented recent developments of the HELP Programme and the main human rights obligations in the migration context, referring to the case Minasian and others v. the Republic of Moldova. The national tutors – Sergiu Caraman and Cezara-Elena Polisca – discussed practical aspects related to the course implementation and the adaptation of its content to the national legal framework.
The event was organised in partnership with the Council of Europe project “Strengthening the Human Rights Protection of Refugees and Migrants in the Republic of Moldova: Phase II”.
