Gender-oriented Human Rights Workshops

Workshops highlight the impact of armed conflict on women and children, promoting gender-sensitivity in handling female victims' testimonies and building the skills and materials necessary to deal with victims, witnesses, and perpetrators in the spirit of reconciliation.

Specifically, the first training workshop was organised to coincide with the April 14th start of the public hearings phase of the TRC's mandate. The Commissioners agreed that provisions would be made for the collection of additional testimonies on sexual violence after the start of the hearings. Provisions were also made to provide support and guidance to female victims to encourage them to testify in either open or closed hearings. Support was provided in the form of family, community, and NGO support and trauma-counseling services. The TRC worked closely with NGOs that focus on women's issues during the process, with special efforts dedicated to addressing women's needs not just as victims, but as advocates as well.

Conflict, Gender, Rights, Women, Children.

Enacted into law in February 2000, the TRC is mandated to create an impartial historical record of human rights abuses related to the armed conflict in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 1999. Modeled after the Commission in South Africa, the TRC aims to promote healing and reconciliation and to restore the dignity of victims by addressing impunity and responding to victims' needs. The Commission is mandated to focus on the needs of women and children and to pay special attention to sexual abuse as a human rights violation.