The Inquirer
Monrovia, Liberia

Distributed by

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia

Posted June 2, 2004

A two-day human rights and peace building training workshop organized by the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) and funded by Mercy Corps under its Diompilor Program, ended over the weekend in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.

The workshop brought together 30 participants from Grand Bassa and River Cess Counties, and it took place on the St. Peter Claver’s Catholic Compound in Buchanan, a JPC release said.

Speaking at the opening session of the workshop, JPC Assistant National Director Onesimus Banwon, admonished the participants to put into practice the knowledge acquired from the training.

He said Liberia needed a change for the better and one way to achieve this was by educating the citizens on their basic rights and corresponding responsibilities. He said unless this was done, Liberians would find themselves in the selfsame situation which, for the last two decades, reduced their humanity and lowered their esteems in the eyes of the rest of the world.

For his part, Mercy Corps’ Human Rights and Peace-building Program Manager Varney Kiazolu assured the participants that his organization, through its partnership with local human rights and pro-democracy organizations, would do all within its reach in helping to ensure that respect for human rights, rule of law and democracy prevail in post-conflict Liberia.

He said it was only through respect for the rights of the human person that genuine peace and tranquility can prevail in post conflict Liberia.

He said it was only through respect for human rights of the human person that genuine peace and tranquility can prevail in a given society, the release concluded.