DUSHANBE, March 18, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The representative office of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Tajikistan completed a two-day training workshop on Human Rights Defenders and Media Cooperation on March 17.

According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, fourteen young Tajik journalists and human rights activists from Dushanbe and surrounding areas participated in the workshop. Participants learned how to jointly develop analytical reports on human rights violations and acquired skills in interviewing victims, as well as knowledge of the legal aspects of human rights violations.

Rukhshona Olimova, Access to Information and Services Program Coordinator at OSI Tajikistan, and Sergey Romanov, Head of the Independent Center for Protection of Human Rights, reportedly led the training workshop.

“It was a very helpful training.  I met a lot of human rights defenders and other NGO representatives whom I never thought they do so a wonderful job.  I will definitely use their expertise in future while writing my reports”, - said Nilufar Karimova, reporter of the Tajik language ‘Ozodagon’ News Agency.

In the coming months, IWPR will train young journalists on the same topic in other regional centers of Tajikistan: Khujand, Khorog, Kulob, and Qurghon Teppa.

The training workshop was implemented within the framework of a new three-year project “Empowering Media and Civil  Society Activists to Support Democratic Reforms in Tajikistan” supported by the European Union under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)  as well as Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and  National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The project aims at promoting democratic reforms in Tajikistan by encouraging closer cooperation between leading human rights activists and independent media; improving the capacity of independent media to conduct investigative journalism projects and analytical reporting; and stimulating constructive dialogue within and between human rights CSOs, media, and local and national government officials concerning a variety of issues affecting the socio-economic life of the country.