NOVANEWS
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Sr
On Monday, 21st January 2013, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) opened the activities of their second training course in Benghazi, Libya. The training course is being held in the head office of the Libyan Red Crescent Society in Benghazi, where 22 attending participants, include judges, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers, and civil society activists. The 21-hour training course will conclude on Wednesday, 23rd January 2013.
In his opening speech, Mr. Abdul Hamid al-Madani, Secretary-General of the Libyan Red Crescent Society in Benghazi, welcomed PCHR and AOHR delegations and other participants to the training. He highlighted the interconnection between human rights and the services offered by the Red Crescent Society, the need for paying more attention to enhancing the Libyan community’s knowledge in the field of human rights, and to gain theoretical and practical knowledge from persons with relevant expertise. Mr. al-Madani encouraged the participants to utilize the opportunity to obtain as much knowledge as possible and further transfer and implement what they learn to the Libyan community.
Mr. Mo’taz Bellah Othman, Assistant Secretary-General of AOHR, explained that AOHR was established over 30 years ago and that the late Mansour al-Kikhia, co-founder of the AOHR, dedicated his life to defending human rights in Libya. Mr. Othman pointed out that this course is the part of a 3-year capacity-building program organized by AOHR in the field of human rights, which began in the year 2011.
Mr. Bassam al-Aqra’, Director of PCHR’s Training Unit, thanked the Red Crescent Society for hosting the training course and also thanked the participants for their interest. He elaborated that a human is the most important resource we have and we need to build his/her capacity and potentials worldwide. He also stressed upon the importance of building the Libyan community on the values of human rights and maintaining the human dignity.
Mr. Abdul Karim Edbeish, Director of AOHR’s sub-office in Libya, and Mr. Abdul Karim Bo Zeid, Judge of North Benghazi Court of First Instance, participated in the opening ceremony and thanked AOHR and PCHR delegations. They highlighted the importance of such training courses and the need to organize more such courses in the future in order to include other participants and widely spread the knowledge of human rights.
The program of the training course includes the following topics: introduction to human rights; international human rights system; international mechanisms to protect human rights (treaty and non-treaty based mechanisms); national mechanisms to protect human rights; the International Criminal Court; transitional justice; monitoring, investigating and documenting violations of human rights; the role of judges in the protection and promotion of human rights; the judicial guarantees to promote rights and liberties; and a round table meeting on the application of justice and rule of law in the Libyan community.
A team of professional trainers from PCHR and AOHR specializing in the field of capacity-building and human rights are conducting the trainings, namely: Mr. Bassam al-Aqra’; Mr. Mo’taz Bellah Othman, and Islam Abu al-‘Einein.
PCHR, AOHR, and ILAC concluded the activities of the first training course, which was held in Tripoli on Saturday, 19th January 2012. The 21-hour training was held for 3 days and 27 human rights activists and lawyers representing 8 community-based organizations participated in it.
It should be noted that this is the third time that PCHR, AOHR, and ILAC are organizing training courses in Tripoli, as another 2 training courses were held in November 2011.
