Training Course on

Human Rights and Criminal Justice Promotion

Hurghada , Egypt 1 – 6 August 2017

 

Within the context of the partnership between the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) and “Hands Off Cain” Organization to reinvigorate the International Project for the containment of the Death Penalty in time of  terrorism and in the framework of the AOHR’s Program on Punitive Policy Reform in the Arab Region, a specialized training course entitled “Human Rights and Criminal Justice Promotion” was held in the coastal resort of Hurghada during the period from 1-6 August 2017.

The training course aimed to raise the participants’ awareness of human rights principles, mechanisms and problems that curb the effectuation of these rights and enhance their capacity to access and evaluate human rights sources, and means to disseminate human rights principles through the media.

Twenty one male and female participants attended the course, including media professionals specialized in monitoring human rights and justice issues as well as civil society activists in Egypt.

First: Agenda 

The agenda of the four-day course included the following activities:

  • Day 1: Introduction to Human Rights:

1st Session: Human Rights… origin and classification

2nd Session: National human rights mechanisms

3rd Session: International human rights mechanisms

  • Day 2: Criminal Justice System in Egypt:

4th Session: State’s commitment to access justice

5th Session: Fair and just trial guarantees (trial procedures in Egypt)

6th Session: Types of human rights reports

  • Day 3: Media and Criminal Justice:

7th Session: Media, Human Rights and Citizenship

8th Session: Media coverage of the death penalty

9th Session: Media coverage in the context of exceptional situations and disturbances

  • Day 4: Legal protection for media professionals and key problems:

Tenth Session: a workshop on media coverage of justice affairs (examples of application)

Eleventh Session: legal protection for media persons

Twelfth Session: A discussion of the problems facing journalists while covering civil society issues.

Second: Participants in the training course 

The organization took into consideration the gender representation of the participants and the diversity of the workplaces (participants from the most prestigious Egyptian newspapers and satellite channels) and the functional diversity (including journalists, script writers and photographers). The list of participants included journalists who are specialized in monitoring human rights situations in a number of well-known newspapers and satellite channels, as well as civil society activists. Participants were:

  • Journalists and media professionals:

Hager Hosny Sayed – Mona Obaid – Wael Ali – Hussein Bahgat – Huda Rashwan – Mohamed Sayed El Shazly – Ahmed Sayed Mujahid – Menat Allah Gamal – Sarah Samir – Mohammed Badr – Abdel Salam Al Jeraisy – Sami Wahib – Salwa Abdul Rahman – Aya Amer.

  • From the National Council for Human Rights and civil society activists:

Zeinab Safwat – Salma Al Samahi – Asma Alshahawy – Mohamed Fouad – Ibrahim Fouad – Amjad Fathy – Khaled Imam.

Third: Training methodology

The training targeted a major category of media professionals who are specialized in tracking human rights issues, civil society activists and activists from the National Council for Human Rights who have a legal background and who are specialized in monitoring, complaints and tracking of human rights issues.

The organization decided to hold the course in a resort outside Cairo to enhance participants’ commitment and participation and hold profound discussions, as well as to create an atmosphere that fosters social relations between organizers and participants.

The organization has also selected specialized and professional trainers who are specialized in training in the field of media and human rights. The organization held three preparatory meetings for trainers to develop the training content in a manner that is consistent with the objective of the activity, and to prepare the training methodology and approaches that are in line with the quality of the targeted discussions (a list of trainees and their contacts is attached).

The organization provided male and female participants with reference documents stored on CDs that included:

  1. Resources from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (in Arabic and English).
  2. The publications of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, including the Arab Guide to Human Rights.
  3. Sources of access to human rights information.
  4. International reports and the universal periodic reviews (UPR).

The trainers adopted interaction-based training methodologies based on stimulating dialogue and brainstorming during the sessions, selecting issues of interest to the Egyptian society, the human rights activists and journalists, in addition to practical training through the division of participants to working groups to ensure their participation, interaction and presentation of the results of the work of their groups for open discussions by all participants.

Fourth: The events of the training course

The first day of the session aimed at providing an introduction to origins of the concepts of human rights and their national and international mechanisms, addressing the misunderstandings that lead to confusion between certain concepts and mechanisms, the nature of the state’s commitment to human rights, the importance of human rights in establishing justice in general and criminal justice in particular, the importance of seizing opportunities available in the context of the phase of drafting legislations to activate constitutional guarantees for the promotion of the human rights status in general and the criminal justice, in particular.

The key issues raised included:

  • The density of the cases of the implementation of death penalty in Egyptian legislation.
  • The role of the media related to shedding light on Egypt’s international human rights obligations and its performance in their implementation.
  • The need to identify mechanisms to change the public views relevant to excessive penalties and the death penalty.
  • Discussing accusations of corruption against human rights organizations and how to regain the trust of the community.
  • The problem of lack of information on issues raised in Egypt.
  • The importance of enhancing communication between civil society, media and intellectuals.
  • Addressing the confusion between international mechanisms for the protection of human rights and their roles.
  • Addressing the confusion between national mechanisms for the protection of human rights and their roles.
  • Means of enhancing the role of the media as a mechanism for the protection of human rights through raising public awareness and participation in monitoring and prevention.

The second day focused on giving information on the criminal justice system in Egypt, the conditions and guarantees of a fair trial, addressing the confusion between types of courts, types of crimes and levels of litigation, expectations relevant to criminal justice in the light of constitutional guarantees, amendments made and expected legislations, establishing the usage of terminology especially those linked to the description of crimes in international standards and conditions of their use in national contexts, and how to interact with various human rights reports and literature.

The key issues raised included:

  • Fair trial guarantees (pre-trial, during trial, appeal of sentences, and execution of sentences).
  • Addressing the confusion between the court system in Egypt, types of crimes, and types and forms of courts.
  • The difference between the conclusive judgment and the final judgment, and the rulings issued in abstentia and the rulings issued in presentia in felonies and misdemeanors.
  • Difference between opposition, reinstatement of proceedings, challenge, and appeal.
  • The difference between the decisions of the Public Prosecution relevant to shelving or referral of the case.
  • The difference between the judgments of the judiciary not to accept or reject the case.
  • Addressing the confusion between the roles of the State Lawsuits Authority, the Administrative Prosecution, and the military judiciary.
  • The difference between the legislative and advisory divisions of the State Council.
  • The problem relevant to press exaggeration of specific legal aspects.
  • enhancing the understanding of, and terms of usage of, terminology relevant to major international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression.
  • Addressing the confusion between enforced disappearance, confinement, detention and imprisonment.
  • The difference between types of governmental and non-governmental reports.
  • The problem of violations in the Arab region and their relation to international standards, and the importance of the implementation of mechanisms of fairness and accountability.

The third day dealt with the media work problems related to the follow-up and coverage of human rights and criminal justice issues in particular, the types of penalties imposed, the media coverage of the death penalty, the circumstances of the media work in traditional and exceptional contexts and the promotion of the conditions of integrity, professionalism and objectivity.

The key issues raised included:

  • Media and human rights organizations are a monitoring and awareness raising agencies, and not decision-making bodies.
  • The problem of lack of experience of media persons and critics in evaluating published material from a human rights perspective.
  • Problems of media (personal views, professionalism, bias for a party or a view, external interventions).
  • It is not necessarily necessary to dedicate a newspaper for human rights because it is possible to address life and social issues from a human rights perspective.
  • The way the media addresses the principle of citizenship.
  • Media and relations of collective influence.
  • The Egyptian press and the death penalty and how the reader would form his stance regarding the death penalty in view of the way the press addresses the issue according to prevalent press forms.
  • Problems of media handling of topics under exceptional or emergency circumstances.
  • The problem that a journalist turns from a real communicator of information to a party in a case or a witness.
  • The nature of the risks that a journalist may face (official, terrorism, from community members).
  • Personal safety during media work.
  • Problems of press work during the coverage of emergency events and clashes.
  • Not giving false/real promises or hopes.
  • Examples of forming press teams to cover emergency and exceptional events.

The fourth day focused on issues relevant to enhancing media work, ways of providing legal protection for media professionals and how to fulfill their right to freedom of opinion and expression within the media message of promoting respect for human rights and protecting them, especially the promotion of criminal justice and the reform of community awareness regarding penalties in general and the death penalty in particular, in addition to the requirements of objective impartiality towards public issues.

The key issues raised included:

  • The difference between the press coverage and what is published on social media.
  • Editorial policies and their impact on writing an article or its title.
  • The problematic influence of the political orientations of journalists on their work.
  • The need to separate between political opinions, partisan bias and press work.
  • The problem of not being fully familiar with the package of internal laws that affect the press work and information gathering activities.
  • The difference between libel and defamation in published materials according to the law.
  • The problem of not using the rights provided for in the Constitution.
  • Lack of interest in the NGOs functioning in various governorates, despite the fact that they provide good services.
  • The difference between a political activist and a human rights activist.
  • Standards of the application of aggravated penalty (death penalty) for committing the most serious crimes.
  • The problematic use of catchy but immature headlines that are sometimes very far from professionalism and journalism standards.

Fifth: Evaluation of the training course:

Through conducting a survey of the participants’ opinions, as well as the trainers, the evaluation of the course was as follows:

  1. Evaluation of the course by male and female participants:

Results of the evaluation of the training program: (through the evaluation forms distributed to the trainees by the course management – 14 forms)

The first question is related to the trainees’ assessment of the extent to which the training course achieved its objectives, and their suitability for their professional needs and the effectiveness of the curriculum, program and organization:

  • Achievement of the objectives of the program: 35.7% of the participants assessed the achievement of the objectives of the program as excellent, 42.9% of them assessed it as very good and 21.4% of them assessed it as good.
  • Achieving the personal objectives of the program: 42.9% participants stated that the achievement of the program of personal goals was excellent, 35.7% of them said it was very good and 14.3% of them said it was good while just one of them stated that it was unsatisfactory.
  • The relevance of the training content to the working conditions: Participants assessed the relevance of the training content to the working conditions as follows: 35.7% of them said it was excellent, 21.4% of them said it was very good, 35.7% of them said it was good and one of them stated that it was unsatisfactory.
  • Effectiveness of training methodology and approaches: participants’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the methodology and approaches of training ranged between excellent by 28.6%, very good by 28.6% and good by 42.8% of them.
  • Organization of the program: participants’ evaluation of the organization of the training program ranged between excellent by 28.6%, very good by 42.8% and good by 28.6% of them.
  • Training materials: participants’ assessment of training materials ranged between excellent by 50% , very good by 28.6% and good by 21.4%.
  • Effectiveness of Trainers: Trainees’ evaluations of trainers’ effectiveness ranged between excellent by 35.7%, very good by 50% and good by 14.3%.

Question 2: Duration of the training program (4 working days):

  • 71.4% of participants felt that the duration of the training program was suitable while 28.6% of them considered it short.

The third question: The most important three sessions:

  • The trainees’ views varied regarding their interaction with the training sessions and their arrangement of the session according to their importance. The most important three sessions for the trainees were:

– Fifth session on the guarantees of a just and fair trial.

– The third session on international human rights mechanisms.

– The ninth session on media work in the context of exceptional cases and disturbances.

This order does not reflect a consensus, as it included a reference to the importance of other sessions, and there was a different internal order of the importance of the sessions by the trainees.

Question 4: Training topics that trainees believe that they needed more time:

  • Legal protection of journalists and more examples of issues that faced media persons.
  • International human rights mechanisms and national human rights mechanisms.
  • Fair trial guarantees.
  • Media, human rights and citizenship.
  • Media handling of the death penalty.
  • Media work in the context of unrest
  • Problems facing media persons in covering civil society issues
  • Human rights reports
  • How to select news headlines and how to write a news item the right way

 

Question 5: Additional topics that trainees wished to add to the course:

  • A special training program for monitoring and documentation
  • Applying a simulation model to identify international mechanisms
  • Applying a UPR simulation model
  • The role of media in spreading the human rights culture
  • Guarantees of freedom of opinion and expression
  • Problems and obstacles facing the work of civil society organizations
  • Enforced disappearance
  • Trafficking in Human Beings
  • Training on how to accept others
  • Detailed explanation of some rules concerning writing and terminology
  • Trainees’ testimonies regarding previous experiences

 

Question 6: How beneficial was the course to the development of professional performance:

  • 78.6% of the participants expressed their view that they benefited from the training course in developing their professional performance and 21.4% of them said it was relatively useful.

Question 7: Feelings of participants after the end of the training course:

  • Participants expressed a sense of happiness for participation in the course while just one of them felt exhausted.

The Eighth Ruling: General Comments:

  • Highlighting important points and topics that raised the trainees’ concern.
  • Non-compliance with the timing of certain sessions.
  • Opening the floor for discussions and expressing personal opinions in an unorganized manner.
  • Allowing more time for some trainees than others to express their views.
  • The need for more time to deepen discussions.

 

  1. Evaluation of the course by the trainers team

A special session was held for the trainers to listen to their feedback on the participants follow-up mechanism on the one hand, and to assess the content, coverage and its impact on participants, as well as listening to the trainees self assessment.

  1. Trainers believed that it would have been possible to provide greater benefit by allowing more time for the course, while stating that training outside Cairo would provide greater benefit to participants, especially to media professionals.
  2. The trainees agree on the future need to take care of a larger and more diverse group of media professionals, including specialists in lawsuits, justice issues and accidents as well as members of newspapers’ editorial boards.

Sixth: outputs of a practical nature:

  1. Conducting a workshop to evaluate and submit comments on the project website https://www.containingdeathpenalty.org/
  2. Holding a more profound mini-course for ten male and female participants.
  3. Holding a mini workshop on publishing crimes in Egypt and the relevant legislative framework.

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