Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) has in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Irish Aid concluded a two-day intensive training for District Human Rights Committee members and regional officers on the Commission’s Reporting App.
The reporting App was designed to help DHRC members and regional officers to do real time reporting on human rights issues across the country.
The training on Monday August 23rd and Tuesday 24th, 2021 at the District Council Hall in Makeni, brought together sixteen (16) members from the DHRC, as well as regional officers of the Commission.
During the opening session, Commissioner Hassan Samba Yarjah thanked the UNDP and Irish Aid for providing the funds to capacitate DHRCs and the regional officers. “We see our interaction with the civil society as a comfort zone for us”, he said. Let us use this period to have frank discussions, capacity building is never ending so take advantage of this training, he added.
Representing the UNDP, Senior Rule of Law and Human Rights Officer, Alie B. Sesay said, human rights issues were extremely important in the United Nations system. According to him, the UNDP has realized that the relationship between the Commission and the DHRCs is intricately intertwined in such a way that HRCSL cannot effectively conduct its exercises without the support of the DHRCs.
He stated that the role as DHRCs is to complement what the Commission does in terms of enhancing human rights monitoring and reporting.
Participants thanked the Commission and the UNDP and Irish Aid for the training and assured of doing their best in conducting real time reporting on human rights issues.
Abdul Sheriff from Moyamba said: “This training is one of a kind we have gone through with support from the HRCSL and UNDP. We were able to learn lots of new things, particular the KOBO APP which we are going to use in doing our reporting on human rights issues.” Practical sessions were conducted by Information Technology experts from UNDP to educate participants, especially the DHRCs on the usage of the reporting APP.
