By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL), with funds from UNDP and Irish Aid on Friday 16th July, concluded a round trip to Port Loko, Koinadugu and Kono districts for the establishment and training of school club members and teacher coordinators. This adds to the existing Human Rights & Peace Clubs in the Western area (urban/rural), Kenema, Bo and Bombali districts.
HRCSL’s vision to extend human rights outreach campaign to schools anchors within the ‘catch them young’ phrase, to imbibe human rights awareness in pupils and make them ambassadors for human rights in their schools, homes and communities.
The Vice Chairman of HRCSL, Victor I. Lansana, in his address to the pupils said, the Commission’s key mandate is to protect and promote human rights of all in Sierra Leone, adding that this task is done through “public education, advise to government on human rights issues, monitoring and to inquire into human rights complaints. He added that school pupils also have a role to play in ensuring that human rights are enjoyed by all; he therefore informed them of their responsibilities to make the right to education, as promoted under the Free Quality Education Program, a success for them all.
He encouraged the pupils and their teachers, who served as coordinators, to keep the clubs alive by embarking on activities in their schools and communities that will promote human rights among their peers and the country as a whole.
A copy of the Commission’s Guidelines for Human Rights and Peace Clubs in Secondary Schools in Sierra Leone was presented to each school to guide the activities of the clubs.
The pupils were trained on the history of human rights, misconceptions of human rights, peace and conflict, guidelines to establishing the peace clubs among others.
The pupils and their teachers/coordinators were quite excited about the training and promised to be great ambassadors of human rights and individual responsibilities in their schools and communities going forward.
