On Friday 26^th August 2016, ILPD issued certificates to 30 prosecutors who attended the three days training on the international covenant on economic, social and culture rights.

This training aimed at increasing the awareness of the rights under the Covenant among judges, magistrates and lawyers;

Raising awareness particularly on ICESCR and Familiarize prosecutors to invoke the ICESCR before courts and tribunals

The human rights committee overseeing ICESCR recommends that State parties pursue efforts to increase the awareness of the rights under the Covenant among judges, magistrates and lawyers as well as to take steps to disseminate the Covenant among the population.

The Concluding observation of the committee based on Rwanda's 4^th periodic Report on the covenant submitted in 2012 state that: the Committee is concerned at the absence of cases of invocation or direct application of the Covenant by domestic tribunals and courts." It is therefore appropriate to train Prosecutors and judges on ICESCR and other instruments on the need to invoke them when prosecuting or deciding on cases.

As confirmed by the representative of the trainees, this training, will help them to invoke both domestic and international laws in Courts of law, specifically they will be knowledgeable on ICESCR and its applicability in national Courts and it was an occasion to respond to the recommendation raised by the Committee on ICESCR.

<link>ahirwa@ilpd.ac.rw