As lawyers prepare for the implementation of the Human Rights Act, there is a danger that they will limit their horizons to their own jurisdiction.

There is both a need and the opportunity for lawyers in England and Wales to assist lawyers in central and eastern Europe in bringing cases before the European Court of Human Rights.

The number of states party to the European Convention on Human Rights has increased dramatically in recent years, and in 1998 the Russian Federation ratified the Convention and accepted the right of individual petition.The lawyers in central and eastern Europe are keen to use the European human rights machinery to improve the substantive content of the law and the operation of their own legal system.

They have the expertise of their own system but are unfamiliar with the European machinery.

Their access to the European case-law varies, depending not just on resources but also on language ability.

An example of such co-operation is the case of Assenov v Bulgaria, in which Peter Duffy QC assisted the Bulgarian lawyer who brought the case.The case concerned the ill-treatment of a gypsy boy in detention and has implications throughout Europe.

Lawyers in the UK have a special contribution to make because they are highly regarded in Strasbourg.

They are seen as being thorough and well prepared.Professor Kevin Boyle and I won the Human Rights Lawyer of the Year 1998 award for our work in assisting Turkish Kurds in bringing cases to Strasbourg.

The cases are unusual in that a high proportion of them have required the European Commission of Human Rights, and now the court, to hold fact-finding hearings in Turkey, because the domestic authorities have not taken the complaints seriously and have not carried out an effective investigation themselves.

Many of the applicants and witnesses only speak Kurdish and are illiterate, which has posed its own challenges.

The alleged violations are serious in character a nd include torture, indiscriminate killings, targeted killings, 'disappearances' and the intentional destruction of homes.Kevin Boyle and I are part of a team which includes other solicitors and barristers.

The work is co-ordinated through non-governmental organisations in Turkey and London.

The cases would not happen but for the courage of lawyers in south east Turkey.

They have been detained, tortured and charged on account of their involvement in the cases.

In the week in which the award ceremony occurred and in which the world was marking the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, delegates of the European Commission of Human Rights were involved in fact-finding hearings in Ankara in the case of Elci & others v Turkey.

The case involves a group of lawyers who are complaining about their unlawful detention and ill-treatment arising out of their representation of defendants before the State Security Court in Turkey and their involvement in cases brought before the European Commission of Human Rights.

In assisting them, the lawyers in the UK can help to develop a worldwide solidarity amongst lawyers, many of whom pay a high price for exercising our profession.

There is a real sense of professional solidarity between doctors worldwide.

There is a need for a greater development of such a sentiment between lawyers.Lawyers in the UK are beginning to develop ad hoc structures for co-ordinating such international co-operation.

What is needed now is a more formal channel through which lawyers outside the UK can be put in contact with lawyers within the UK willing to assist in bringing human rights cases.

The most obvious channel, at least in the first instance, would be through national legal professional bodies.

The International Bar Association could also have a role to play.

This will not only assist in the development of accountability and the rule of law throughout Europe.

Those involved will meet some remarkable people.

We may have been assisting lawyers in south-east Turkey but we have learnt a good deal in the process.