wfn.org | MONITORING CIVIL PEACE IN LEBANON

[mecc <mecc@cyberia.net.lb>]

The JPHR program organized a joint activity with the church and civil
organizations on ³Monitoring Civil Peace in Lebanon² between 12 - 16
September 2008  at Ajax hotel in Cyprus. A special session was dedicated to
exchange ideas and opinion about the ³Monitor² which the JPHR program is
establishing. The meeting recommended that the Monitor be more specific in
covering 4 areas of concerns: Religious freedom, Christian presence in the
Middle East, Women and Gender, Education for peace and democracy. Parallel
to this meeting an Outline for implementation mechanism of Human Rights
Monitor was deeply discussed by the working group which met in Ajax Hotel o n
the 13th of September and discussed practicalities about the mechanism of
work of the Monitor at the country level and at the level of the region.

>The following issues were discussed:

1-Forming groups/monitoring cells or lenses in each country including young
resource persons being also sensitive to gender balance (In
consultation/coordination with the local churches).
2- The recruited persons should have expertise knowledge on the following
themes: Law/Human Rights, Journalism/Media, Catechism, religious education,
communication NGO¹s networking.
3- A coordinator in each country from the core committee should be appointe d
and assigned the task of leading the group and being responsible before the
main office. 4- Capacity building for the recruited resource persons including a series
of trainings on human rights international law, journalism and reporting,
integration of human rights in religious education, documentation, follow u p
and filing. These trainings should be held on quarterly basis, so that the
persons are able to carry out the work for the monitor after one year from
the start of the first training.
5- Each training should consist of theoretical part and practical part base d
on case studies from the local context. The training should also include
group discussions that would lead at the end of the series of the training
to answer two major questions:   Contextualizing the work of the Monitor
accordingly to the country socio-political situation, and finding ways to
implement the work (Local groups design a work plan).
6-These trainings should reflect bridging between the top level leaders of
the Church and the communities. The organizers of the trainings will invite
a Church figure who has history in human rights activism.
For more information contact: meccypr@spidernet.com.cy

>Middle East Council of Churches
>Office of International Ecumenical Relations
>P.O. Box 5376, Beirut, Lebanon

Guirgis Ibrahim Saleh, General Secretary

mecc@cyberia.net.lb or guirgissaleh@cyberia.net.lb

>+961-1-353-938
>http://www.mec-churches.org/