Omar Darboe aka Diamond Dealer of Gunjur has just completed an amnesty international facilitated course on monitoring, documenting and reporting human rights violations. The training which ran from May 7th to may 14th is aimed at equipping the many participants from local civil society organisations with the basic knowledge and skills on Human Rights monitoring, documenting and reporting in order to empower them to document Human Rights Violations committed by Yaya Jammeh as well as continuous monitoring of current Gambian situation.
Omar Diamond Darboe attending the Amnesty International Course on Human Rights Reporting
Speaking to GunjurNewsOnline from his base in Gunjur, Omar Darboe posited that the training could not have come at a better time as it will equip him and his fellow participants to be vigilant and guard their democratic rights in the new democratic dispensation. “The training is of utmost importance. It is very helpful to us a citizens and human rights defenders. It also comes at an even better time when the victims of 22 years of Yahya Jammeh’s brutal dictatorship from Gambia to Ghana are demanding justice for the despicable crimes he committed against humanity.”
Omar Darboe added that the training has also helped him and his fellow participants to understand the basic knowledge of Human Rights and international instruments. “It has helped us to gain sufficient skills on how to monitor, document, and report cases of gross Human Rights violations related to previous political regime as well as keeping a vigilant eye on any human rights abuses by the previous Jammeh regime and by extension the current government if they are ever found wanting.”
Participants at the Amnesty International Course on Human Rights Reporting
Omar Darboe also thanked Amnesty International, Coalition for Change the Gambia (CCG) and Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh for their support. “I cannot thank amnesty international, Coalition for Change-The Gambia and Amadou Scattred Janneh enough for this great training “As the American Abolitionist and liberal activist Wendell Phillips one said “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day, or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”