Detainees are human beings and they have rights and they must be treated with respect and dignity: this was the firm statement made by the chief of the regional human rights office of the United Nations Operations in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) in Bondoukou, situated 420 km northeast of Abidjan, during a training session in Bouna, situated 620 km northeast of Abidjan. The training programme, which was initiated by the Legal Clinic of Bondoukou, was on respect human rights and child protection for prison guards in Bouna.



In his presentation, UNOCI's human rights representative focused on the notion of human rights in general and the rights of detainees and prisoners in particular. He stressed the importance of prison guards assuming their responsibilities while at the same time respecting the rights of detainees. "You have a heavy task: that of socialisation and positive transformation of prisoners in order to give them a new chance to become better citizens when they leave prison," he told some dozen prison guards who participated in the training.



For her part, the representative of UNOCI's Child Protection Section sensitized the prison guards on the basic principles of child protection. In this regard, she drew their attention to children's fragility and the need to protect when they are in detention centres and prisons.



Expressing his satisfaction with the quality of the training, the registrar of Bouna prison, Tia Soumahoro, welcomed the initiative which he said would greatly contribute to improving the work of the prison guards. "The more training they get, they more they will become more efficient which would in turn lead to committing few errors at work," he added. This training will give prison guards the opportunity to improve their daily management of prisoners, he concluded.