This final workshop thus aims to guide the participants toward a concrete understanding of maintaining a viable program of operation, as well as how to overcome the day-to day constraints they face while fighting torture in Libya. It is facilitated by Marwan Tashani, Head of the Libyan Judges’ Organization, who has accompanied all five trainings and describes a “world of a difference” from the first training to this last.
With the completion of this workshop, OMCT will have trained more than 100 Libyan lawyers and human rights defenders on: the proper documentation of torture cases; prison and detention center visitation protocols; monitoring human rights violations; and, perhaps most significantly, ensuring that Libyan civil society and local NGOs possess the necessary vision and expertise to achieve their long-term goals and to guarantee their continued sustainability.
Over the past two years, the most active participants in this series of workshops and training seminars have mobilized to create the Libyan Network for Legal Aid (LNLA). The network is a team of lawyers, activists, and jurists trained by OMCT, who began informally monitoring human rights violations since the very first days of the Libyan revolution and who now enjoy a solid professional platform.
Salahadin Abukhzam, President of the LNLA, said, “OMCT has bestowed on us both the legal expertise and project management skills to ensure the long-term sustainability of our network.”
At this critical moment in Libya, OMCT trusts that the 100 legal professionals trained through this series will have an outsized effect in stabilizing the country and restoring the rule of law, with view to a future in which all Libyans can live peacefully and exercise their basic rights.
(Source: OMCT)