The National Human Rights Commission, India nominated three officers, Dr. Savita Bhakhry, Joint Director (Research), Shri Jaimini Kumar Srivastava, I&PRO and Shri Utpal Narayan Sarkar, AIO to attend Pilot APF Blended-Learning Course on 'Building an Effective Media and Communication Programme'. The first component of the programme was a four week online course from the 17th February - 16th March, 2014. The second component of the course was a Sub-Regional Training Workshop held in Male, the Maldives from the 7th - 10th April, 2014.
The overall aim of the training was to strengthen the institutional capacity of NHRIs to develop effective media and communication programme. During the programme, the focus mainly remained on using the social networking sites by the NHRIs for sharing information about their activities and human rights.
During the discussions, the NHRC, India representatives maintained that the Commission favoured and promoted use of all possible platforms for communication and that it already had an exhaustive and inclusive 'Media and Outreach Policy' wherein the importance and use of social networking sites had also been very well delineated.
However, there were several aspects, among others, relating to the feasibility of using social networking sites with respect to manpower and other paraphernalia requirements which were to be addressed. However, the Commission continues to engage with people through direct communication with various print, electric and news agency organisations, who in turn have been further reporting on human rights issues as well as NHRC, India related activities in various newspapers, magazines, TV and radio news channels, web-based platforms etc. The Commission also publishes monthly Newsletters in English and Hindi and various publications.
18 Participants from the NHRIs of India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives attended the programme. Sharing of communication strategies by the participants and communicating human rights issues through digital stories was also among some of the significant aspects of the programme. The participants also visited the Human Rights Commission of Maldives and met the President, Members and officers to have a first-hand account of their functioning.
Ms. Mariyam Azra Ahmed, President of Human Rights Commission of Maldives, addressed the Valedictory Session of the Workshop conducted by Prof. Judy McGregor, Head of School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology and Mr. James Illiffe, a Consultant to the APF on media and communication training programme.
Shri Jaimini Kumar Srivastava, when invited to speak on behalf of the participants in the Valedi-ctory Session, appreciated the efforts of APF towards developing a collective strategy for the NHRIs, even as the ground realities of each member country remained different, to deal with the subjects of media and communication. He was of the view that the course content would hopefully be improved as it was just a pilot programme and there would be a clear cut strategy for training of those who were un-initiated in the business of communication and those who already had some experience and faced different challenges within the institutional framework of each NHRI and the essential requirements of communication through media.