CIHRS organizes training workshop for several Libyan organizations on monitoring and documentation of violations and report writing

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies in Tunisia organized a three-day training workshop for several representatives of Libyan human rights organizations on the monitoring and documentation of violations and report writing. The workshop was held between June 7 to 9 in Tunis.

Nineteen trainees from various Libyan organizations attended the workshop, which focused on the non-political standards of rights work, including impartiality and independence, as well as definitions of UN standards and instruments for monitoring and documentation, ideal documentation methods, interviewing victims, the preparation and writing of reports, and engagement with international agencies and organizations.

The workshop came as the investigating mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights began documenting violations of international human rights law in Libya since January 2014. The mission’s report is to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in its 31st session in March 2016.

The workshop sought to prepare trainees for cooperation with the UN mission and to provide reports and verified information to the mission that meet UN documentation standards, thus facilitating the UN mission’s job and ensuring that it receives documented information on the ground through these organizations.

The training session was conducted by Hani al-Dik, with the OHCHR, and Zaki Othman, with the human rights and rule of law bureau of the UN Support Mission in Libya.

The training session was part of the CIHRS’s efforts in Libya to help civil society organizations and human rights defenders to acquire practical skills in research, documentation, and advocacy, as well as foster networking between civil society workers in Libya and international and regional organizations and agencies, and to reduce the isolation of Libyan groups. The effort also sought to strengthen the role of civil society in the furtherance of a peaceful resolution to the Libyan crisis that guarantees international standards of security and stability, including ensuring an end to violations and their non-recurrence in the future by incorporating effective guarantees for justice for victims, building national security institutions as alternatives to militias, and ending impunity, as is consistent with Libya’s international obligations under conventions on international human rights law and international humanitarian law.