The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance has created its very own educational programme – the first ever international Human Rights Law Course in the country – for which over 190 persons are already registered.
Initially, some 1000 persons submitted applications to be a part of the course but only 250 were shortlisted and presently 195 were enrolled.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira on Monday during the launch of the course spoke of the tremendous support it has received.
“In the first few hours, we had 300 applications. I said you’ve got to be kidding. That’s crazy. Well, it went up to over 1,000, and that’s when we said, now what do we do? How do we manage this one? So what we decided to do, we had a lot of discussions, and we broke it down to 250.”
On this point, Teixeira revealed that even though only a small number of applicants were selected, the ministry made it its duty to select persons from different levels of education and geographical locations among other conditions.
“We wanted to try to be as inclusive as possible both in terms of geography in terms of gender, in terms of the level of education and that of course in this group you will have persons who come from the public sector and the civil society” she stated.
Additionally, the minister revealed that the programme stemmed from an urgent need to sensitise citizens about human rights and its importance.
“We assumed that people knew about basic things like human rights, and as we went on our sojourn, we discovered that people thought they knew human rights but didn’t, so we started playing with the idea of doing an International Human Rights Law Certificate programme.”
In this regard, the minister noted that the ministry has conducted several programmes over the years which mainly catered to the staff of government agencies however there was a recognised need to administer the programme to a larger audience.
“We recognised too that again there was a lack of real connection with our own constitution, our own laws, so we started playing with the idea of doing an international human rights law certificate programme of our own that would be open to persons who may or may not have degrees or may or may not have the same requirements or eligibilities to go to the University of Guyana.”
Moreover, the Minister encouraged participants who would have completed the programme to use the knowledge gained to tackle problems that Guyana as a society is facing currently.
Meanwhile, the course will cover some ten weeks of detailed training sessions, facilitated by several high-level officials well versed in the law and human rights matters, including Chief Justice Roxanne George.
This first edition of the course will commence on August 5, with classes being held two times per week virtually via Zoom. In-person sessions will be held in various areas in the capital city, determined by the ministry. The Ministry is contemplating offering the course twice yearly from 2025.
