Human Rights Advocacy Promoted at Training Course

Migrant Forum Asia and Diplomacy Training Program recently hosted a week-long training course on human rights advocacy and migrant worker welfare in the Middle East. The course, held at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), aimed to build knowledge and skills in order to enable participants to more effectively use international standards in their advocacy work to support the migrant workers coming to the Middle East from across the world.

The students involved in the course included representatives from nonprofit organizations based in South Asia, the Gulf, and the greater Middle East region, as well as from trade unions, faith-based groups, and community organizations. In total, 28 participants from 10 countries took part in the joint training.

The program covered topics such as the laws, standards, and United Nations conventions regarding human rights, and the best practices that should be followed by businesses employing migrant workers. It outlined the trends in industry approaches to worker welfare and discussed the challenges that arise in the recruitment process, as well as potential solutions.

In addition to providing participants with the knowledge and capacity to act as advocates for human rights, the course also hoped to serve as a meeting point for those working in the sector to collaborate and partner with each other to achieve their aims.

This is the third time that GU-Q has hosted the course, which complements the University’s value of ‘Women and Men for Others’ and its on-going focus on promoting social justice through service-based initiatives and community engagement programs.