24 August 2010 – In a bid to enhance human rights in the south, civil society representatives completed a two-day training workshop on that topic today at UNMIS Juba.

"We trained local society groups to understand what human rights means to them, how to investigate, how to monitor and assess, and how to report violations based on laws governing human rights," said UNMIS Human Rights Officer Dennis Okot.

"Cases such as arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and intimidation are gross human rights violations that are prevalent in Southern Sudan and should not go undetected," he said.

The workshop drew 32 participants from various human rights organizations operating in Juba including the Southern Sudan Law Society, the Associations of People with Disabilities and the Southern Sudan Human Rights Commission, among others.

The training will help groups educate their local population on what constitutes violations and establish appropriate reporting channels, according to Mr. Okot.

Senior legal aid officer Ladu Moris of the Southern Sudan Law Society said the training had furnished him with new concepts like reporting procedures, which he had been unaware of before.

"I did not know that my rights as a deaf (person) are protected," said Caroline Atem, communicating through sign language. "Now, I have understood that the world is taking care of me."

UNMIS Human Rights Capacity Building Officer Muna El Tayeb challenged participants to safeguard human rights of the population through reporting.

"The more you report, the better the human rights situations will improve in the country," she said.

As a new strategy, the UN Human Rights Council has established a Universal Periodic Review process to appraise every four years human rights situations in all of its 192 member states, said UNMIS Human Rights Officer Isaiah Lauro.

"The strategy aims at bringing together all member states into a dialogue to discuss the prevailing human rights violations and look for solutions to remedy the situation," said Mr. Lauro.