ICRC Gives Pre-deployment Training To Fiji Corrections Staff Bound For South Sudan

Suva, Fiji (ICRC) – Twenty officers from the Fiji Corrections Service who will be deployed for one year on a UN mission to South Sudan attended a pre-deployment training facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Suva today.

“The one-day workshop briefed the participants on the humanitarian situation in conflict-affected South Sudan to prepare them for what they may find once deployed in the world’s youngest country. The workshop covered some general sessions on South Sudan and the ICRC work in the country and sessions more specifically catering for the corrections officers, such as on International Human Rights and South Sudanese Law, International Detention Standards, Covid-19 in places of detention and sexual violence”, said Mr Björn Rahm, ICRC Protection Coordinator in Suva.

Commissioner of Corrections, Commander Francis Kean, said that “the Fiji Corrections Service has been supporting the UN mission in South Sudan by deploying its officers since 2010. Through these deployments, the Fiji Corrections Service plays its role in contributing to peace and stability abroad, whilst also providing its officers international exposure and experience that will enable them to better conduct their duties in Fiji upon return.” Commander Kean expressed his thanks to the ICRC for following up swiftly on the request of the Fiji Corrections Service to conduct this training.

For the ICRC Head of Regional Delegation, Mr Vincent Ochilet, who once worked as an ICRC delegate in South Sudan, “the Fiji Corrections officers will live and work in a very different context to what they are used to. We hope that the briefing we have provided will give them some context and useful information on the humanitarian needs and responses they can expect to encounter. This training is part of the ongoing engagement between the ICRC and the Fiji Corrections Service on building capacities of Fiji Corrections staff.”

Throughout the world the ICRC aims to secure humane treatment and detention conditions through visits of persons deprived of freedom and a constructive, confidential dialogue with detaining authorities. The ICRC does this in more than 90 countries around the world, including Fiji, Solomon Islands, some other pacific countries and South Sudan.

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