The training workshop for WHRDs from West Nile region on off-line and online safety guidelines was conducted on the 16th and 17th February 2023 at the Satellite hotel Nebbi district in West Nile. The workshop was supported by the French Embassy- in Uganda in partnership with Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda (WHRDN-U). The 2 day workshop consisted of 22 participants from across the West Nile region, involved in the defense of human rights and were trained by a team from the WHRDN-U secretariat.
To this end, the training focused on physical security, personal security, information security, office & home security and digital security. Participants discussed some practical measures some of which they already take to minimize security risks and learned about others that they might not have been aware of yet. Participants committed to use the following measures and deal with specific threats in the future for their security and safety:
- Create and maintain secure passwords to protect sensitive files on your computer, protect computers from malware and hackers, backing information
- Introduce a security registration book for visitors at office
- The different physical and digital strategies for personal and organizational protection of WHRDs.
The workshop used interactive activities to help people understand the information, and take part in discussions. For instance; in role plays participants acted out a situation, in small group discussions. Similarly, participants composed a song to help them focus their attention and to make it easy for them to remember the things they learned.
This training workshop was implemented on the basis of the off-line and on-line safety guidelines of WHRDs launched by the UNWOMEN, UNOHCR and WHRDN-U in 2021. The aim of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of WHRDs and mitigate the impact of online and offline attacks against WHRDs, provide knowledge on mitigating gender-based attacks, criminalization of their work, as well as physical and personal security management, offer practical strategies for enhancing WHRD’s safety online & offline as well as provide WHRDS with basic safety tools for WHRDs in preventing and responding to attacks against them.
