Yemeni Law Students Complete Democracy and Human Rights Training

About 120 senior students at the Sharia and Law College, and the Higher Judicial Institute have concluded their democracy and human rights training, organized by the Democracy School in Yemen, and supported by the MEPI local grants program.  Four training sessions were conducted, each for 30 students.  The training included mock trials held in model courtroom, enabling students to put in practice the democracy and human rights principles they examined.  Students simulated the roles of judges, lawyers, public prosecutors, and defendants, in “an apprehensive setting such as a court room”, as described by Democracy School Director Jamal Al Shami.  Unconventional instructional sessions conveying democracy and human rights concepts through role play, dialogue, and working groups, generated “an extraordinary interaction, desire, and comprehension” by the participants, Al Shami commented. In July, another 330 law students will complete the same training.

These workshops, facilitated by law professors and human rights activists, cover topics on the principles of democracy and judicial independence, procedures of fair trial, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international treaties on the protection of the rights of women, children, juveniles, and prisoners. By the summer of 2008, more than 450 new Yemeni lawyers, public prosecutors, and judges will join the judicial sector armed with the training on international human rights standards and mechanisms of a fair trial.