By Moses M. Tokpah,mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
KAKATA, Liberia- The rural Human Rights Activists Programme (RHRAP) in collaboration with Serving Humanity Empowerment and Development (SHED) has ended a two day SGBV and Women’s Human Rights’ training for about forty-five (45) Police and Correction officers in Kakata City, Margibi County.
The trainees include 15 Police Officers and 30 Correction Officers from the Kakata Central Prison and the Bondiway Prison Center respectively.
The two-day course, which took place in Kakata over the weekend, is part of the Access to Justice Program being implemented by RHRAP and SHED and is being sponsored by the European Union.
RHRAP’s Executive Director, Lorma Baysah speaking to newsmen at the end of the training said the exercise was meant to provide for the officers an understanding on how the criminal justice system works so as to enable them contribute.
“It’s intended for them, when we say Access to Justice we believe that our officers must have the requisite training so that they can be able to apply it in their various areas of assignment,” he said.
According to him, the training focused on human right and practice in policing, human right and practice in corrections and how everyone can be able to fight SGBV case among others.
Mr. Baysah also said the training was divided into two sections which include the Gender Based Violence section facilitated by SHED and the Criminal Justice Section facilitated by RHRAP.
The RHRAP Boss then advised that training of this kind should be provided on a regular basis because if one conducts a survey, more people will say they don’t have confidence in how the rule of law works adding that it’s everybody’s business.
Mr. Baysah expressed the need for persistent education to be provided for the people so their contribution can trigger down to having the implementation of the rule of law.
“In my opinion Liberia, that’s what we’re lacking behind; the rule of law is not being implemented we have good laws on the book but the implementation aspect and that’s why we are here,” he added.
The training organizers are positive that the security officers are going to apply the knowledge acquired to their various areas of assignment.
Mr. Baysah said similar training is due to be conducted in Nimba County, as his group operates in four Counties such as Nimba, Lofa, Bong and Margibi respectively.