Justice for All – Prison Fellowship Ethiopia in collaboration with Southern Nations Nationalities and peoples’ Regional State conducted two rounds of human right protection and conflict resolution training for Militias.
The training took place from October 23 to 24, 2018 and from October 26 to 27, 2018 at Adama, World Training Center. A total of 212 Militias out of which 30.1 % were women Participants.
Mr. Hailu Dawe, SNNPR Militia Bureau Director, opening the training appreciated the work of JFA-PFE for organizing this kind of training to empower the militia in human rights and conflict resolution areas. He also acknowledged, through the request of JFA-PFE the number of women militia participation has also increased.
The militia is recognized to be very near and accessible to the people in rural areas. They provide local security largely independent from the police and the military. Equipping them with the concepts of human rights and conflict resolution will help in securing peace and stability in the area. Most of the militias did not pass through formal education; as a result these kinds of trainings are very necessary, if not mandatory, for them to grasp the basic concept of human rights and mechanisms to protect the rights of others and peacefully resolve conflicts that arise in the areas they serve.
With this in mind, the training was organized with objective of capacitating SNNPR Militias with the required knowledge and skill to respect and protect human rights of people and to increase additional knowledge on conflict resolution for their day to day endeavor.
Ato Garedew Assefa, Consultant on Peace and Reconciliation, and Dr. Woubshet Shiferaw, Senior Policy Advocacy Advisor for JFA-PFE facilitated the training on conflict resolution and human rights protection respectively.
The participants indicated how timely and crucial the training was and appreciated the rich experience and knowledge of the facilitators’ which helped them to grasp pertinent knowledge on human rights and conflict resolution.
They also admitted that the training made them to evaluate their work and scrutinize their overall activities on conflict resolution and human right activities, which inspired their dedication and motivation for future work by filling and identifying any gaps.
