Partners of the AWARE network developed an e-learning course on “Implementing the European Arrest Warrant (EAW): Promoting Human Rights”. The course is designed for judges and prosecutors (estimated duration: 5h). A circumscribed version is aimed at judicial practitioners, including lawyers, NGOs, academia and researchers (estimated duration: 2h). The e-learning course is free of charge and pursues the following objectives:

• Deepened knowledge of the operational aspects of the EAW;
• Improved understanding of the assessment of detention conditions;
• Increased practitioner knowledge of the reality of detention conditions and executions of EAWs in Germany, Italy, Portugal and Romania;
• Promotion of good or promising practices on the use of the EAW.

The course is divided into three modules. After participants had learned the basic concepts of the EAW and its role in the EU judicial cooperation scheme, attention is drawn to sensitive issues surrounding European Arrest Warrants, e.g. proportionality, efficiency and human rights. The course concludes with reflections on the future of the EAW, considering recent developments, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants receive a certificate of participation upon completion of the course. They can register via the AWARE project website.

This e-learning course was developed under the AWARE-EAW project, which is funded by the European Commission –DG JUST, and coordinated by the Bremen Senate of Justice and Constitution (Germany). Partners are the NGO Antigone (Italy), the Portuguese organisation Innovative Prison Systems (IPS), and the Romanian Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM). The project brings together different perspectives stemming from practitioner experience in order to address the challenges of EAW implementation and policy: decision-making information, use of existing provisions in national law, and informal judicial cooperation. A particular focus is on the obligations of the executing Member State courts to examine the detention conditions in the issuing Member States, alongside broader issues involving the protection of human rights of the requested person (→ eucrim 4/2019, 243).