02 Nov 2016

 Different speakers at a human rights training workshop organised by Ngamiland Council of Non-governmental Organizations (NCONGO), have said collaboration of NGO’s and the government is vital to promote and positively explain issues of human rights.

The workshop was meant to assist organisations in developing a brief framework for engaging on human rights issues, and to help them develop mechanisms for the monitoring and reporting of human rights violations.

Also, it was aimed at increasing organisations understanding of advocacy on human rights issues and sharing skills on human rights and United Nations human rights mechanisms.

A representative from Thuso Rehabilitation Centre, Mr Isaiah Moyo said the collaboration would help them to have the input on services and to share their aims with government departments that would help them to deal with their target groups as most of NGOs were dealing with sensitive issues.

He gave an example of their NGO saying their students were being transported by North West District Council to and from school the thing he said was working for them.

“Collaboration will also help to cut costs as the government will be helping at the other hand rather than going solo,” said Mr Moyo.

For her part Human rights projects officer from NCONGO, Ms Lame Olebile said there was a need to understand the cause of social problems saying it was also important to communicate with government and the community to change the way they were doing thing especially those that were not accommodating human rights.

Ms Olebile said they were planning to consult community leaders to train them on human rights as they met with the public on daily basis.

 She however hailed the culture of Botswana which according to her was dynamic and accommodating human rights.

She said it was vital for dikgosi to understand human rights as they were the champions of human rights.

They manage their communities on daily basis, she said adding that they should know what was just and fair to avoid the violation of human rights. ENDS