UN to bolster capacities of local rights groups

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Burundi has signed an agreement to reinforce the capacities of 28 local rights associations in the country, Abdoulaye Traore, an official at the bureau, told IRIN on Tuesday.

"We think our office can transfer particular skills," Traore, who is head of the capacity building unit of the UN office, said.

Under the agreement, signed on Friday in Bujumbura, the UN office will provide greater human rights training for the staff of these associations, improve their organisational skills, impart its expertise and provide office equipment.

"Some associations don't even have offices," he said.

Many associations are too weak to tackle the complexities of human rights advocacy, he added.

To overcome this deficiency, the UN office has also agreed to provide office space, stationery, computers, a photocopying machine, a library stocked with books on human rights, and a conference room. Traore said the office had only US $17,500 to kick-start the programme and so needed greater resources from the international donor community to see it to completion.

"It is indispensable that the associations are strengthened to meet the challenges of the transition to democracy," he said.

Burundi inaugurated a power-sharing government of almost equal numbers of Hutus and Tutsis on 1 Nov., in an effort to end the country's eight-year ethnic feud and build the foundation for a democratic future.