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.
