UN funding for human rights projects in Africa
Community human rights initiatives in over 20 countries, nine of them in sub-Saharan Africa, are to receive small grants of up to US $5,000 from the United Nations, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP announced on Monday. UNDP said the project, which began in 1998, supports activities that can have a significant local impact.
It cited the example of an organisation called Liberia Prison
Watch, which used its grant to monitor human rights in prisons and create
awareness about the rights of detainees among members of the criminal
justice
system.
The project is now entering a new phase during which grants will be awarded
to Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea,
Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and various countries outside
sub-Saharan Africa.