Accra Daily Mail

Ghana: Human Rights Advocates Training Ends in Accra

(September 14, 2007, Accra) A two-week intensive annual human rights advocates training programme held from August 27 to September 7, 2007 has ended in Accra, Ghana with participants acquiring skills in human rights advocacy work.

The training programme under the theme: Human Rights and Development: The UN Millennium Development Goals, had 29 participants from all countries in the ECOWAS region and selected countries in Central Africa including Burundi, Chad, D.R. Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville and Rwanda.

A two-week intensive annual human rights advocates training programme held from August 27 to September 7, 2007 has ended in Accra, Ghana with participants acquiring skills in human rights advocacy work.

The training programme under the theme: Human Rights and Development: The UN Millennium Development Goals, had 29 participants from all countries in the ECOWAS region and selected countries in Central Africa including Burundi, Chad, D.R. Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville and Rwanda.

A number of renowned human rights experts and advocates from international and regional human rights institutions took the participants through the use of regional, international, intergovernmental and national instruments and mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights.

Also included in the advocacy training were thematic sessions on in-depth treatment of four of the eight MDGs namely:

1. Health and Human Rights (access to health, reproductive health issues, HIV/AIDS);

2. Environment and Human Rights (effects of extractive industries on the environment);

3. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (women and access to economic resources, the law and women's rights, etc) and

4. The Rights of Children (child labour and trafficking, violence against children, access to education, etc)

Other components of the training were financial management, budgeting, financial reporting and fundraising strategies.

Among the experts who facilitated the course were Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, a distinguished scholar and Pan-Africanist from D.R. Congo, Anna Bossman, Ag. Commissioner of Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Bess Rothenberg, Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the Columbia University in New York, Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda in Lagos and Alioune Tine of Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO) in Dakar.

Others were Sylvia Mwichuli, Communications Director of the Africa Office of the UN Millennium Campaign in Nairobi, Dismas Nkunda, Co-Director of International Refugee Rights Initiative in Kampala and Prof. Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA. The West and Central Africa Human Rights Institute's (WACAHRI) annual advocacy training programme is the collaborative effort of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in Accra, Ghana and the Center for the Study of Human Rights of Columbia University in USA.

Generally, WACAHRI's objective is to strengthen the capacity of human rights advocates, and leaders of various human rights NGOs in West and Central Africa through advanced training.

Founded in 2004, WACAHRI's Secretariat is hosted by MFWA in Accra, Ghana.

Source: WACAHRI