30 May 2014 - To promote human rights and respect for prisoners, UNMISS held a 10-day intensive training course for some prison officers in the Western Equatoria capital Yambio.

Some 20 prison officers attended the course, which included topics related to delegation of authority and how to compact rioting in prisons, according to UNMISS Corrections Officer Mohamed Sani.

He urged church leaders to visit prisoners and pray together with them during key religious days and encourage them to learn from their mistakes in becoming good citizens.

UNMISS State Coordinator Ataklti Hailu urged participants to put into action what they had learned about handling prisoners.

“Prison is not just for torturing people,” Mr. Hailu said. “It is for training people to become good citizens in the future.”

He added that UNMISS’ new mandate would not include capacity building. It would focus on protection of civilians, human rights monitoring, humanitarian aid and support for the peace process.

Most of prisons in Western Equatoria are hosting a large number of arbitrary detainees due to a lack of judges in the state to preside over their cases.