UN Remains Supportive Of CSOs Efforts

-Provides Partners With Awareness Materials, COVID-19 Items

By Mark N. Mengonfia

The Office of the High Commission on Human Rights says it remains committed to civil society organizations in the area of right protection in Liberia as they look forward to Liberia upholding human rights.

Speaking recently during the handing over ceremony of Human Rights awareness materials in Congo Town, the Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) Officer In Charge, Sonny Onyegbula said the UN institution saw the need to provide visibility jackets and awareness material to the civil society institutions they are in partnership with.

He said those items are intended to identify Human Rights monitors on the field while carrying out their respective tasks as rights monitoring institutions and individuals.

Mr. Onyegbula said when government announced the State of Emergency and knowing that officers of the joint security have been implementers of the enforcement, they (OHCHR and civil society organizations) saw the need to partner in monitoring how the SOE is going to be implemented taking into consideration issues of human rights protection.

He said since COVID-19 outbreak, the Office of the High Commission on Human Right (OHCHR) has been working with CSOs institutions to ensure that they keep track of human rights issues.

According to him, during the period the world is fighting an unseen enemy it was important for group of individuals who are monitoring rights violation are properly identify before they are mistaken during the work on the field.

He said, human rights monitoring is not in any way intended to target anyone, but help to build a society that people will freely live without fear.

Institutions that benefited from the OHCHR’s visibility jackets and awareness materials include the Civil Society Organization Platform (CSO Platform), Ministry of Justice(MOJ), Her Voice Liberia(HVL) and the Emergency Humanitarian Development (EHUD) Foundation

Benefiting institution praised the UN institution for identifying with them to enhance the work they do as civil society organizations.

Mohammad Sheiff of EHUD Foundation said those items are greatly going to help them reach out with the right messages, monitoring plans and properly being identified as they carry out their work of Human Right Monitors.

He said “lot of times when people hear about human rights monitoring, they think that they are looking for pitfalls against government or individuals, but added “it is not the case, we want to identify where there are lapses.”

He said that during their monitoring , they do not only look at where government is going wrong, but said that they watch out for citizens violating rights of law enforcers citing a recent case which saw citizens throwing stones at police officers.

He indicated that in their monitoring processes, they also highlight cases of brutality against state securities and not only the one with officers violating citizens’ rights.