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Progress Towards the Establishment of the Human Rights
Commission in Lesotho
20 December, 2010
The Government of Lesotho, with the support of UNDP
and Irish Aid, is in the process of establishing a National Human
Rights Commission. The 6th Amendment of the Constitution
Bill which, inter alia, includes the establishment of the Human
Rights Commission, was presented to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee
for the first time in December 2010. The National Human Rights
Commission would be the main
institution which will deal with the protection, promotion and
monitoring of human rights in Lesotho. The Commission will address
all human rights abuses, ensure the rule of law and fight impunity
where it exists.
For the
first time in its existence, Lesotho complied with the ratified
international conventions on Human Rights by submitting both the
first CEDAW and UPR reports. The partnership also saw training
initiatives of strategic secotrs of society. Human Rights Training
for law enforcement agencies, Senators and teachers were all carried
out a sa follow up of inclulcation of human rights culture amongst
the Basotho.
The UNDP and Irish
Aid’s Consolidation of Democracy and Good Governance (CDGG) Project
continuous work aimed in the promotion and protection of human
rights in Lesotho. The organisation of study tours in countries
such as South Africa and Zambia as well as holding of workshops and
meetings to sensitize and raise awareness on the function, structure
and powers of the National Human Rights Commission made this
possible.
The Ministry of
justice, with the assistance of the CDGG programme held a workshop
for both the security forces and primary teachers. Transformational
changes that are being realised as the result of the former are that
the police have begun changing their interrogating methods when
dealing with suspects. It is reported by the police that a number of
them have started questioning whether their interrogating methods
are in line with their training as provided by the Ministry of
Justice. However they are now base with a new dilemma. It is now
taking a lot longer to extract information from suspects and as a
result it is now taking long to complete the cases that used to take
them relatively short periods. The ministry has recognised the need
to continue to support law enforcement agencies by finding out from
other developed countries how interrogations are done without
abusing human rights of suspects.
Teachers are receiving
reports of a number of children abuse cases being brought forward by
the children themselves since they have been exposed to human rights
training. They say the training has helped them to deal with
children on a more sensitive level and understand them and the
messages they sometimes seek to convey. In the past children were
not listened to even when they wanted to complain between afraid to.
The transformation that has come out is as a result of the training
for teachers on human rights because teachers themselves now
understand what human rights are and no longer take things for
granted. The challenge now is to work with the media in the
protection of the identity and rights of the abused children. The
media have often unwittingly revealed the identity of the under aged
children in their reporting thus exposing them to further abuse.
It is believed that
once the Human rights commission has been established more
unreported cases of abuse will come to the fore as more victims will
have a recourse and there will be no reason why they cannot report
these cases to those that would have been entrusted with their
handling. |
