UNAMI Human Rights Office (HRO) Training for Iraqi Bloggers on Human Rights

The training was held on 09 August 2016. Sessions were held on freedom of expression, protection of human rights of civilians, documenting and reporting human rights violations and on the economic, social and cultural rights of women, persons with disabilities as well as ethnic, religious and linguistic communities of Iraq. Through interactive sessions, the participants raised questions and shared their experiences. Human rights-related publications, published by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and public reports of the HRO were also distributed to the participants.

Mr. Francesco Motta, the Director of the UNAMI HRO and the representative of the OHCHR in Iraq, interacted with the participants and praised the important work Iraqi bloggers are carrying out in Iraq. He offered technical support to improve their skills.

It is expected that Iraqi bloggers will include human rights issues in their blogs after the training.

Participants found this training useful. They requested additional training on documenting and reporting human rights violations, international human rights treaties and Iraq’s obligations towards those treaties it has ratified.

A similar training was conducted in Baghdad in November 2015.