A group of 27 commissioners and staff members of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) on Monday started a course on human rights monitoring, investigations and reporting at the Rwanda Peace Academy in Musanze District. The course is being conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. The five-day course seeks to improve the commission’s protection mechanism and investigation techniques of human rights violations, according to officials. While officiating at the opening, the UN advisor on human rights, Chris Mburu said the course was important given that NCHR will benefit from the expertise of the UN facilitators in a bid to conduct an evaluation of the human rights situation in the country. “At this training, the UN will provide support in terms of expertise on investigation, monitoring, fact finding and reporting on human rights issues,” Mburu said. Adding; “The idea is to ensure that the commission is fully empowered, fully strengthened and given full capacity to be able to evaluate the human rights situation in the country and be able to provide the guidance to the government on areas that need to be improved and where violations have occurred for government to know and to take remedial measures.” The NCHR chairperson, Madeleine Nirere expressed that the commission has been focusing on strengthening its capacities and ensuring that its works reflects the aspirations of the country and rooted in international norms and standards of human rights. “A refresher course is a reminder that indeed, we cannot slow the momentum we have gained within the commission,” she noted. Nirere urged commissioners and staff at NCHR to focus on emerging global human rights issues that have potential to sideline the commission achievement. “Given the enormous task that we have, we need to be able to discharge our mandate with a high degree of enthusiasm and professionalism but also with a higher level of responsiveness,” she noted The training facilitators were drawn from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). editor@newtimesrwanda.com
