The Office of the Prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) of El Salvador gains trainers in Migrant Protection

 
El Salvador
5 September, 2019

 

San Salvador, El Salvador. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) concluded the Trainer of Trainers Course on Promotion of Human Rights and Identification of the Needs for Assistance and Protection of Migrants, in which approximately 50 officials from the Office of the Prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) participated.

This course worked to build the capacities of the participants to implement and institutionalize, through their functions, actions to identify needs, assist, protect, and promote the human rights of migrants, with a focus on gender, diversity, and interculturality. 

The activity was led by the Prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights, Raquel Caballero, the National Coordinator of IOM’s Mesoamerica Program, Cecilia Ramirez, the Director of the School of Human Rights of the PDDH, Ernestina Reyes, and student Sandra Bautista. 

The Prosecutor emphasized the vulnerability of the migrant community and the obligation that institutions have to protect the rights of these communities: “For the institution that I head, this course is a significant learning opportunity which will have its fruits in protection actions for different sectors of the population, particularly migrants, who face increasingly complex situations which lead to violations of their human rights.” 

The training process was divided into two stages, one in-person and one virtual, and included training on specific migration issues such as migration and gender, health, psychosocial assistance, migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and migrant children. The purpose was to contribute to capacities for assisting people in vulnerable situations, identifying the needs of migrants, and advising them on human rights. 

For her part, Miriam Guzman, a student in the course, appreciated the learning opportunity and added: “The course we have taken is a powerful tool for assisting migrants, it helps us to strengthen action and work mechanisms for the benefit of these people in the sense that step by step we learned how to provide assistance, and the strengths and agencies we have for coordinating efforts to provide better assistance.” 

This activity was held within the framework of the Regional Migration Program: Mesoamerica - The Caribbean, which operates with funds from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State of the United States of America, and has the objective of building the capacities of governments and civil society to develop policies and practices that promote regular and safe migration.