Respecting human rights will help build peace in Yambio

Respecting human rights will help build peace in Yambio

Respecting human rights will help build peace in Yambio

4 Oct 2017

Respecting human rights will help build peace in Yambio

Felix Francis Katie

Teaching children about the importance of respecting each other’s human rights will help South Sudan build a peaceful and prosperous nation for future generations, says the Officer in Charge of the United Nations Field Office in Yambio, Caroline Waudo.

The Human Rights Division of the UN Mission in South Sudan held a special session with 400 students at Nabago Primary School near Yambio in Western Equatorias to teach them about human rights and to encourage them to share messages of peace with the community. The forum was held in collaboration with GOPAI, a local organisation working with children to promote peace in the conflict-ridden country.

Speaking at the event, Caroline Waudo said educating young people about human rights was vital because it fostered the development of “positive values, attitudes, skills and behaviour that we all want to have in our community”.

Quoting the African proverb that “wisdom often comes from children”, Caroline Waudo said that children were best placed to “plant the seeds of human rights culture”.

Peace comes from respecting and appreciating our differences, she said. Therefore, people should respect the diverse society they live in order to coexist peacefully.

“Peace starts from home and starts from school so, if we don’t search for peace here in our home, in our school, in our farms then we should not expect that peace will come from the big world.”

The Deputy Governor of Gbudue, Grace Datiro, was also present at the Nabagu Primary School event. She said talking about human rights would help foster peace in the region.

“This is a good gesture and this shows that we are working in partnership with UNMISS in Gbudue State. We are striving for peace, we want to live in peace, we want to settle our problems in a peaceful manner and that is why we always talk about peace,” she said.

Grace Datiro urged communities around the school to embrace peace and strive to be ambassadors of peace. “It is now up to the community who are living here to take up these initiatives very seriously and start preaching peace in our homes and in the community and also in the school as we have done today”.

UNMISS’ Human Rights Division is carrying out a series of sessions across the Western Equatorian region to educate communities about the importance of human rights. It also recently spoke about the promotion and protection of human rights to the 500-strong congregation at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Yambio.