Thursday, February 1, 2007

Volume 12 Issue No. 4 December 2006

SHRA holds three workshops in a row

If there is anything that the Sudan Human Rights Association (SHRA) is proud of, it is empowerment Programme. The paralegal movement has registered tremendous successes. During a staff meeting held in the first week of November 2006, the programmes Department realised a gap in their targeted numbers in some refugee settlements, and, therefore, resolved to remedy the inadequacies by conducting more workshops.

It was discovered that while in the settlements such as Madi-Okollo (Arua) and Ikafe (Yumbe), there were satisfactory figures of paralegals; Imvepi (Yumbe) and Rhino Camp (Arua) desired some more to be trained. This necessitated one more training to target trainees from Imvepi and Rhino camp. Consequently, a basic paralegal training workshop was conducted with subjects like paralegal work, human rights, conflict transformation, psychosocial understanding, and refugee laws and policies.

The trainings ran from 27th November-1st December 2006. Thereafter, two refresher courses were held. It was mandatory to revisit Adjumani district, since the ratio of the mandated paralegals to the refugee population was extremely wide. To narrow this gap, a refresher-training workshop immediately proceeded the Arua training, 4th –6th December 2006. To crown the activities, SHRA was back in Arua for a refresher workshop, 8th –10th December 2006. Topics facilitated on were scaled down to three: human rights concepts, conflict transformation, and psychosocial.
Case Reports Collected

SHRA has also realised that the paralegal case reports are an effective tool to record the human rights situation in the paralegals’ respective settlements. Thus, all filed reports in the West Nile region will be collected on a monthly basis. At the same time, fresh forms will be distributed to the paralegals through their contact persons.

This time around, SHRA’s Field Officer, Geoffrey Mudawa, together with his assistant, Natugasha MacLean, rounded up the region collecting filled forms, while also delivering fresh forms to record cases during this festive season. History has shown that the festive period always has an abnormal crime record, so SHRA had to arm the paralegals with fresh forms to help them record any human rights abuses that may occur during this Christmas season. While Geoffrey attended to Rhino Camp and Imvepi settlements, MacLean was in Madi-Okollo, Ikafe, Palorinya and Adjumani settlements.

Sexual abuse on the rise in Adjumani settlements

From a survey carried out on the human rights situation in Adjumani settlements, it was discovered that rape and defilement cases have increased at a high rate. The Assistant Settlement Commandant of Elema and Olua zones, Ajusi Pascal, revealed to SHRA’s MacLean that recent rape and defilement statistics in the months of September, October and November are alarming. On a weekly basis, his office alone was recording between 3-5 reported cases, a situation that has never happened before. To combat the crime and dispense justice, both police and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) regional branch ensure that culprits are apprehended the culprits (some of whom are still remanded), and also assist the victims in all possible ways. Ajusi said that most victims were way laid as they went to get firewood and fetch water.