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Human rights commissions should engage media - Don
2006-04-08 09:42:53
By Joyce Mkinga
National human rights commissions in Africa have been asked to make effective use of the media for effective delivery of services, a visiting don said yesterday.
Professor Brian Burdekin, an expert in humanitarian law from the University of Lund, in Sweden, said the media played an important role in exposing human rights violations.
He therefore asked the commissions to engage and work closely with the media in the discharge of their mandate.
In an interview with The Guardian, the don said human rights commissions in the region had the responsibility to ensure the rights of the people were protected as enshrined in the constitution, international convenes and charters.
’Unless the people understand what is being done by human rights commission they will never cooperate,’ he said.
Prof Burdekin, who is in the country to train human rights investigators from East, Central and Southern Africa, said the success of human rights commissions in the region depended on effective use of the media.
He said independent commissions had the role of ensuring human rights were protected, and when the media report on human rights violations, it only facilitates the work of the commission.
Human rights commissions need to work closely with the civil society, he said, adding that the media is part of the civil society, working to ensure the marginalised also get their rights.
’Unless we develop good relations with the media we will never succeed in our endeavours,’ he said.
Prof Burdekin said people with disability were the most vulnerable group in the society and subjected to discrimination.
Education on human rights was vital not only to the disabled but also to the entire nation because ignorance was the major cause of the problem, he said.
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