By Ramatoulie Jawo
A project focused on building the capacity of victims of human rights violations, YELEF, has on Saturday concluded two days of Capacity Building training on managing expectations of Victims of Human Rights Violations on the Implementation of the Government’s White – Paper.
Speaking at the closing ceremony on Saturday, the coordinator of the project, Isatou Jammeh, said the project’s main focus is on building the capacity of victims of human rights violations to be able to better participate in the conversation around the transitional justice process.
“Most of the work we want to focus on is to manage the victim’s expedition with regards to Government’s White Paper.
“The idea was conceived in May after we have our first Twitter chat on the government’s White Paper, where we see the need that it’s important to have this conversation around transitional justice and how can the victims be part of the conversations. Not just stakeholders that are working with victims but victims themselves because most of the times we talk about victim center’s approach but how well are they approaching centers with victims Involvement”? she asked.
She also disclosed that the project is funded by the British High Commission;
“We brought facilitators from different departments to take victims through different mechanisms, like the legal proceedings. We have reparations. Specifically the type of reparations, we also have coping mechanisms, we also have peacebuilding, and Social Cohesion. Because all of these things are part of transitional justice mechanisms and at the end of the day these are conversations that need to happen and the more victims lead this conversation we will have a successful implementation of the government’s White Paper” she started.
Muhammed Sillah, a victim, said before the training most of them (victims) lost hope of getting justice for their loved ones but the two days of capacity building have restored their hope of getting justice.