Citizen Journalists Trained on Reporting Gender-based Violence

Under Voices for Gender Equality Project supported by the European Union and DanChurchAid (DCA), CCIM conducted the training course “Fundamental Human Rights, CEDAW and News Reporting” in Phnom Penh from 6 -7 June 2018 attended by 32 citizen journalists (CJs), 16 are women, from different provinces.

The objective of the training was to raise the awareness and understanding of the CJs on the issues of domestic violence and international laws such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as providing them with skills on reporting incidents and issues related to violations of these local and international laws.

The training also aims to engage the citizens in reporting issues affecting the women, girls, and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals to contribute in improving gender equality within government structures and in public life in Cambodia and in ensuring that they can claim their rights and receive necessary support from authorities and their communities.

With the expertise of the trainers from human rights, women rights and media sectors using relevant curriculum and participative methodology, the citizen journalists expressed having improved their understanding on the issues and acquired additional reporting skills to bring the issues to the attention of the government and the public.

The training ended with a high commitment and passion from the citizen journalists to carry out the challenge of contributing reports during and beyond the project period. In collaboration with the project implementing partners — Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and NGO-CEDAW — CCIM will be planning more trainings to the citizen journalists to increase their awareness and improve their capacity to promote gender equality in the country.