Maat concludes the second training workshop for media professionals in the Red Sea

The media and civil society are the link between the citizen and the state

Trainees: It is imperative to work on issuing a law for the freedom of information circulation in Egypt

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights concluded the second training workshop for media professionals in the governorates of North and South Upper Egypt, which was implemented within the framework of the first phase of the program "Enhancing the capabilities of media professionals to cover the UPR"Tuesday, May 31, 2016.

It is worth noting that the training program is one of the capacity building components for a project The Universal Periodic Review as a Tool to Improve Public Policies during the Transition, Which is implemented by the Foundation with funding from the European Union over a period of two years starting from January 2016. The training program targets 100 media professionals working on issues related to human rights from all governorates of the Republic, through 8 training workshops divided into two phases during 2016-2017.

The training program seeks to provide media professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills that enable them to understand the system of human rights protection mechanisms in general and the universal periodic review mechanism in particular, in addition to providing them with the necessary knowledge related to improving public policies based on human rights standards and the state's obligations to the universal periodic review mechanism, and skills Implementing media campaigns and writing media reports for monitoring and following up the implementation of recommendations.

As the trainees were assigned to carry out media campaigns to cover the issues of the universal periodic review and follow up on Egypt's implementation of its international obligations in the governorates of Upper Egypt, and in this context, the media professionals participating in the training program adopted issues related to economic and social rights and women's rights to work on them during the period separating the two training sessions, especially Most of the challenges facing Upper Egypt are closely related to this package of rights, provided that these reports are reviewed during the second phase of training in November 2016. With the aim of enabling them to practice their work freely and efficiently, the media professionals participating in the training program are asked to work on issuing laws for the freedom of information circulation. in Egypt.

He recommended the participants in the training workshop to make the most of their media platforms by focusing on the issues related to the universal periodic review and the recommendations adopted by Egypt in March 2015, as the media, especially audiovisual media, can have a tangible effect in raising the public's awareness of the UPR and the international agreements that it has ratified. Egypt.

The media professionals participating in the training workshop stressed the necessity of integrating the work of the media and civil society organizations to improve human rights conditions in Egypt by following up and supporting the state’s implementation of its international obligations.

The project, which began in January 2016, seeks to strengthen the role of the universal periodic review to improve public policies and reform human rights during the transitional phase in Egypt by actively engaging civil society organizations, activists and media professionals in following up and advocating for the necessary reform of human rights, and adopting new policies compatible with international human rights standards. Based on the 2014 UPR.

More updated news about the project activities is available at the following link: www.fb.com/UPR.Egypt2016/