A three-day human rights workshop for West African journalists opened yesterday in Banjul. The workshop has been organised by the Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) with funding from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

Participants at the workshop “will deal mainly with human rights journalism, focusing on the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the work of the African Commission.”
 
Ways in which human rights journalists in the sub-region could use their skills and knowledge to publicise the work of the African Commission will also be explored.

The workshop has been organised under the theme ‘an understanding of the African human Rights system’ and will deal with such issues as freedom of expression, restrictions on the media and the rationale for restrictions.

Participating journalists come from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Speaking at the opening, Mrs. Nenneh Macdouall Gaye, Secretary of State for Communication and Information Technology described the theme of the workshop as important for any meaningful development.  “To achieve meaningful development and sustainable growth for the benefit of all to ensure popular political participation we have to respect the rights of our citizens and encourage freedom of expression” she said.
 
She was quick to add that freedom without responsibility could be catastrophic.

For his part, the Assistant Coordinator ACHPR, Dr Robert Eno expressed his appreciation to member states for honoring their invitation to participate in the workshop. He appealed to participants to take the training seriously.