Ascension : HUMAN RIGHTS CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT
Submitted by The Islander (Islander Internet Editor) 05.11.2009 (Article Archived on 19.11.2009)

Rosanna Mesquita, the South Atlantic Project Coordinator for the Human Rights Capacity Building Project in the British Overseas Territories of the South Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific met with members of the Island Council, the head teacher of Two Boats School, the leaders of the Scouts and the Guides.

Rosanna Mesquita, the South Atlantic Project Coordinator for the Human Rights Capacity Building Project in the British Overseas Territories of the South Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific met with members of the Island Council, the head teacher of Two Boats School, the leaders of the Scouts and the Guides.  She was accompanied by Desia Colgan and Lloyd Lotz, two human rights trainers who gave two lessons to the older pupils at the school.  Both lessons gave rise to some lively debate about rights.

Ms Mesquita explained the aim of the project to all groups; that is to provide knowledge and tools to inform and enable them to use human rights in their work and everyday lives.  She stressed that the project will not be making recommendations or identifying areas of non-compliance, but is about giving options.  She also informed groups that the project is working within the framework of rights found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, many of which are found in the Fundamental Rights Chapter of the New Constitution.  She said that the project is also looking at the rights in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women.

Ms Mesquita informed the groups that the project which is funded by DFID, is being run by the Commonwealth Foundation in partnership with the Commonwealth Legal Education Association and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.   All three organisations have a Commonwealth focus with an emphasis on sharing knowledge.  The project is also part of the Commonwealth Foundation’s wider work of enabling civil society organisations to support citizens and government through their work.

Ms Mesquita explained the different activities the project has to offer; these range from human rights awareness training, training on how to include rights into government policy and on different ways of raising awareness about rights (advocacy tools) to international learning and networking which aims to put groups in contact with like-minded organisations at the regional or international level.  She informed the groups of a Challenge Fund which will be giving small grants to successful applicants to run their own human rights projects.  The project will also be providing technical assistance to government officials or other groups to address particular matters, so for example the project has been requested by schools in other territories to provide teaching materials about rights.  The project has another activity looking at the reporting obligations to United Nations treaty bodies such as the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

When outlining the wider picture about the project, Ms Mesquita gave the different Overseas Territories involved in the project; territories in the Caribbean such as Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos Islands as well as St Helena, Falkland Islands, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.  Pitcairn in the Pacific is also participating in the project.  Consultations with the different groups in these territories have taken place in all these territories.

From the outcome of these discussions, the project will be visiting the different Territories this year to deliver general human rights training and then again next year where training will include the other activities.

Following the discussions with the groups on Ascension, both members of the Island Council and the Court Users group have requested training on general human rights awareness.  Providing a short training course to teachers was also discussed.  As the members of the scouts and guides are all at the Two Boats Schools, they decided that their members would already be benefiting from the project through the project's work in the schools.  Ms Mesquita met with the Inspector of Police who expressed an interest for his department to receive human rights training.  It is hoped that the project’s two human rights trainers will be able to deliver training in Ascension in late November.

In addition to the groups which met with Ms Mesquita, the project is open to all government officials, such as heads of department and their departmental staff, public officials, and community based organisations.

If any group is interested in participating in this training or receiving more information about the project, please contact Ms Mesquita by email at rmesquita@commonwealth.int or r.mesquita@btinternet.com

Rosanna Mesquita

Commonwealth Foundation

27 October 2009