Budapest - Refugee Law Clinic
Added on Mon, 2005-12-12 16:07
ELTE Faculty of Law
Description
The clinic's mission is to help asylum seekers in Hungarian community shelters obtain refugee status, a subsidiary form of protection, or find an appropriate solution to their alien policy issue.
The ELTE Faculty of Law Refugee Legal Clinic was started in February 1997 in Budapest through a partnership between the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) and ELTE University. The creation of the clinic was undertaken as part of the Open Society Justice Initiative (formerly known as COLPI) to create several clinics. At the time of the clinic's creation, the Ministry of Interior granted clinic students access to the border police and refugee reception institutions through a formal agreement between HHC and the Ministry of Interior. The legal clinic extended its scope to asylum law and institutionalized its relationship with UNHCR in the spring of 1998. Apart from the close cooperation with HHC and with the UNHCR, the clinic enjoys a relationship with the Menedék Association, which offers social services and counseling to international migrants, and with the Cordelia Foundation, which focuses on serving clients who are recovering from post traumatic shock.
Over the past three years, the clinic has trained 28 law students of the university completing their second, third or fourth year. The students, under the supervision of the professors and legal practitioners carry out a variety of tasks, including managing files, conducting legal research, preparing country of origin material, Interviewing, and providing legal counseling to asylum seekers, preparing draft submissions (i.e. detailed applications for asylum and legal remedy applications), representing clients (especially under-age asylum seekers) at interviews with authorities, interpreting and translating, and providing legal counseling to asylum seekers. The legal clinic is an optional course for which students receive academic credit. Beyond the required coursework, the HHC regularly organizes two- day workshops for legal practitioners and clinic students, all members of a country-wide network to discuss new and problematic legal regulations and share experience.
Over the past three years an annual Moot Court Competition has been organized for all refugee clinic students of the country, where students present 'pro' and 'con' argumentation of a refugee case in their national language.
Academic years 2001/2002 and 2002/2003:
Contact information
Magyar utca 3. I/2,
1053 Budapest, Hungary
Tel/Fax.: +36 1 266 79 63
Email:
csaba.biro@mail.datanet.hu
(Clinic Manager/ Lecturer)
Website: www.helsinki.hu