Maat concludes the fifth training workshop for media professionals in the Canal region, Sinai and East Delta

“Implementing information campaigns on educational development, addressing violence against women and human trafficking from the perspective of Egypt's international obligations.” The most important results

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights concluded yesterday, Monday, the fifth training workshop in the training program "Enhancing the capabilities of media professionals to cover the UPR"The workshop, which is the first in the second phase of the training program, hosted 30 media professionals working on human rights issues in the governorates of North Sinai, South Sinai, Suez, Ismailia, Port Said, Damietta, and Sharkia.

It is worth noting that the training program consisting of eight training workshops divided into two phases targeted 100 journalists and media professionals interested in publishing about and covering human rights issues at the local level, in all governorates of the Republic, where the program had concluded its first phase in September 2016, which focused on raising capabilities and skills Media professionals participating in the program on international human rights mechanisms, the universal periodic review, improving public policies based on human rights standards and Egypt's international obligations, monitoring local issues related to the UPR recommendations and intensifying media coverage about them.

The media personnel participating in the first phase of the training program had monitored some local issues related to human rights in local communities and at the national level, most notably the pollution of the Nile water due to the Kima Aswan plant, the fight against corruption, the role of the National Council for Human Rights in strengthening communication with international mechanisms to protect human rights Dropout from education, the right to development, the right to health, and the amendment of laws for the exercise of political rights and their coverage in a group of paper and electronic newspapers, the most important of which are Akhbar Al-Youm, the Constitution and the nation.

The second phase of the program focuses on enabling the participants to plan and implement successful media campaigns aimed at improving human rights conditions by linking local and national issues and policies to the UPR recommendations and Egypt's international commitments. The most prominent successes of the training workshop were to identify some of the issues that the participating media professionals will undertake. The training workshop is implementing media campaigns about it, which include developing the education system in Egypt, addressing the phenomenon of domestic violence and violence against women in the workplace, and human trafficking. The training workshop also recommended developing a periodical publication to monitor progress in implementing Egypt's recommendations before the UPR, developing some media outlets to reach the largest possible number of citizens and making them aware of the international mechanism, and engaging media professionals participating in the project's exercises in the UPR convoys for the governorates.

The training program is part of the activities of the "Universal Periodic Review as a Tool to Improve Public Policies during the Transitional Period" project, funded by the European Union over the two years 2016-2017 and which seeks to enhance the role of the UPR to improve public policies and reform human rights during the transitional phase in Egypt through 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