Youth Voices Being Collected To Provide Them Legal Services
PHOTO: Participants and facilitators pose for group photo following the training
With support from the Office of High Commission for Human Rights, the Prison Fellowship Liberia has officially launched a project aimed at collecting the voices of Liberian youths in order to make have access to justice in the country, as Augustine Octavius reports.
The fellowship’s Country Director, Reverend Francis Kollie disclosed that the project, code named: “Collecting the Voices of Liberian’ Youths to Access Justice” will enable the PFL to work with the Ministry of Justice in collecting information from youths so as to provide them legal services.
Reverend Kollie spoke in an interview with this station shortly after the end of the two-day training on monitoring and record management for human rights monitors and record keeping on human rights in Gbarnga, Bong County on Friday.
The PFL Country Director thanked the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights for sponsoring the training workshop for human rights advocates on monitoring and records management
He pointed out that one of the problems Liberia is facing currently has to do with the huge number of youths in detention in prisons without legal representations in several parts in the country.
“Some have been in detention for many years, some for months and others are weeks,” he said adding: “without having access to lawyers or legal aid provider.”
“The cardinal point of this training is to collect the voices of youths who are in detention in order for the PFL to work with the Justice Ministry; so as to collect their names and ascertain the reason behind their detention and workout modalities in seeking legal representation.”
“After the training,” he went on, “we hope to work alongside with the Bureau of Corrections at the Justice Ministry in order to deploy monitors to gather the information needed so as to provide legal assistance or mediate the case.”
According to Reverend Kollie, the project in the theme: “Enhancing and Protecting Civic Space and People’s Participation,” will also seek avenue through which where some of the youths behind bars will seek the possibility of harmonizing the cases with the complainants under the conflict resolution mechanism.