The Rwanda Journalists Association in partnership with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization has today kicked off a week-long training of trainers on labour rights.
Journalists and media professionals play a leading role in shaping the public debate about social and development issues. They seek to both reflect and influence public opinion.
But they are also pressurized by limited time and resources, making it hard to report and analyze these complex, important issues in a way that draws their audiences back, again and again.
By highlighting the relevance of international labour standards adopted and supervised by the UN agency dealing with labour questions, namely the International Labour Organization, the training seeks to equip media professionals to handle labour issues in an effective way, broadening their news agendas, improving their reporting and analysis and its relevance to readers, viewers and listeners.
The overall objective of the training of trainers is to equip journalists and media professionals with the knowledge and competencies to use international labour standards and the work of the international supervisory bodies at the national level, and to train on the use of international labour standards in labour and social reporting.
“This training will equip the media with the skills to report about such a pertinent issue with an increased level of responsibility and professionalism,” Gonzaga Muganwa, the Executive Secretary of The Rwanda Association of Journalists said.
“We look forward to a fruitful week of better understanding the internationally recognized human and labour rights and consequently playing our part in efficiently handling labour issues within our day-to-day media work”.
“During the training the national journalistic prize “Media for Labour Rights in Rwanda” will also be launched” said Maura Miraglio, Programme Officer at the International Training Centre.
“The prize is a further opportunity to spread information on international labour standards in the country and will give the author of the best news story mainstreaming them a grant to attend an international event for the media”.
The training is part of the Project “Awareness raising and capacity building on human rights in Rwanda, with an emphasis on labour rights” (FED/2013/315367), which is co-funded by the European Union.
The Project is implemented by the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization in partnership with the Institute of Legal Practice and Development and the Rwanda Journalists Association.
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