The 3rd Phase for the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC) has been well underway since May this year. In addition to this, guest speaker Lieutenant Colonel Norihisa Urakami was recently dispatched to the Centre from August 19th to the 30th where he lectured on “Human Rights”, focusing on the people of South Sudan. Lt Col Urakami is a member of the Japan Ground Self Defense Forces (JGSDF) where he currently serves in their research headquarters.

 
Lt Col Urakami had been forward deployed to the Southern Sudanese capital city of Juba up until last year, where he worked in support of international cooperation and peacetime cooperation efforts on behalf of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). The final lecturer for the South Sudan Human Rights Course, he blended humor with concrete examples as he detailed the contributions of Japanese Human Rights efforts. In particular, he spoke at length about instances where various organizations, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention (JCCP), worked together proactively with UN agencies to provide meaningful and essential support for the mission.

21 members attended the course, 3 of which were female, which included professionals from the Ministry of Justice, the Council on Human Rights, UNMISS, mass media outlets, as well as several hand-picked from the South Sudanese civilian populace. These members, each playing a critical part in protecting human rights in South Sudan, learned about and practiced the latest theories and practices relating to the protection the women, children, and refugees. They accomplished this while also gaining an understanding of the application and guidelines regarding the human rights regulations within international and national law.

South Sudanese government officials who attended the course praised the lecture content, saying “This time, we really developed a substantial understanding of what Japan has been working on in South Sudan”. They stressed the value of bringing essential South Sudanese government officials and Lt Col Urakami under the same roof, an opportunity which highlighted the importance of strengthening Japan-South Sudanese bonds.