The Human Rights Front (HRF) in association with the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began orgainsed a two-day State-level training programme for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) here from Tuesday.
Chief guest former Orissa High Court judge and Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) Member Raghubir Dash inaugurated the programme in the presence of State Commission of Women Member Snehanjali Mohanty, HRF chairperson Manoj Jena and others.
Jena said the objective of the training is to create mass awareness on right to speech, strengthen capacity of Human Rights Defenders, sharing challenges for HRDs in Odisha, providing training on techniques of fact finding, monitoring, documenting and intervention in a case.
The human rights defenders demand an effective functioning of Human Rights Institutions (HRIs), building up a State-wide human rights defenders’ network and creating and running a State-level Human Rights Index Monitoring Cell.
They also strongly demand that the Government enact a domestic legislation as per the UN resolution for HRDs as soon as possible.
Jena further said that the two-day programme would focus on developing and strengthening the monitoring, reporting, networking and advocacy skills of the district-level human rights defenders of the State and equipping them with national and international tools, methods and connecting them together with national and regional organisations.