EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NETWORK
Kampala: EHAHRD-Net first strategic planning meeting starts today
The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (EHAHRD-Net), formed by human rights defenders in 2005, will be holding its first strategic planning meeting in Entebbe from the 28th-30th April 2008 which brings together Network focal persons from throughout the sub-region and representatives from human rights defenders organisations in Burundi and Rwanda.
The meeting will be first and foremost a forum in which to celebrate and reflect on the significant achievements of the Network over the last three years. It will also serve as a space in which to strategise amongst members so as to ensure that the Network continues to respond to changing realities and needs of HRDs in the sub-region.
The meeting seeks to achieve the inclusion of two new member countries within the Network, Burundi and Rwanda, who have been invited to join as a result of their recent adhesion to the East African Community. Several human rights defenders organisations from these two new member States have been invited to attend the meeting in the course of which they will be asked to select the organisations which will serve as the Network Focal Point in their respective countries.
“Coming together in Entebbe, where the Network was established three years ago, with many of our key founding members as well as new members is a truly unique opportunity. I hope that this meeting will enable us not only to reflect on the past achievements but will help to ensure that the Network remains flexible and is able to continually adapt to the new realities, contexts and needs facing HRDs in general and more specifically facing our Network members. I look forward to a very fruitful and interactive forum” says Hassan Shire Sheikh, Chairperson of EHAHRD-Net.
EHAHRD-Net also expresses its profound gratitude to KIOS and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for their sustained support and specifically their assistance to enable the implementation of this meeting.
Ms Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Officer at [email protected] or +256-775-141756.