FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2011
Victims of war in West Nile receive advocacy skills training
ARUA— From February 1-3, 2011, the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) will hold a three-day workshop in Arua to train victims of war in West Nile on how to use advocacy strategies to seek redress for the transitional justice issues that affect them most. On Friday, February 4, 2011, the participants will implement their training in a meeting with local leaders to seek justice solutions for war victims in the region.
This training and meeting will be held at the Jershem Hotel in Arua town with members of the West Nile Kony Rebel War Victims Association, and will engage local-level, grassroots persons directly affected by conflict to apply advocacy and lobbying strategies to their demand for justice for past abuses.
Participants will explore a variety of advocacy and lobbying strategies including: problem identification and analysis, proposal and objective formulation, and strategy implementation. These tools will help victims identify “what needs to be done?” and “how?” During the course of the training, victims will formulate a statement to be presented to local leaders at Friday’s meeting.
This training is part of a larger initiative by JRP to ensure that the opinions of victims are not left out of the wider discussions on transitional justice issues such as community reparations, truth-seeking, reconciliation, traditional justice, and gender justice.
Media are invited to observe portions of the training sessions and to cover the meeting with local leaders. For more information, email info@justiceandreconciliation.com or call Sylvia Opinia, JRP Community Mobilisation Team Leader, at +256 (0)471433008 or +256 (0)772332353. Or, visit us on the web at www.justiceandreconciliation.com.
About JRP
The Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) promotes locally sensitive and sustainable peace in Africa’s Great Lakes region by focusing on the active involvement of grassroots communities in local-level transitional justice. They are based in Gulu, northern Uganda.
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