Viniana Leba Cakau

Viniana participated in the DTP’s 25^th Annual Program in Sri Lanka in 2016. Viniana’s role with CCF is to advocate and educate communities on human rights, good governance and the Constitution. She prepares and delivers contextualised training programs working with diverse organisations to build a deeper understanding of human rights, good governance, active citizenship, multiculturalism, democracy and the rule of law and the Constitution. In her work, she has secured partnerships with government institutions that work directly with the indigenous iTaukei, in seeing that they produce village development plans having the Rights Based Approach to Development

Viniana wanted to participate in the DTP program because she believed this opportunity would help enhance her human rights knowledge and understanding. She sought to increase her capacity as a civil society advocate in engaging effectively at the grassroots level in lobbying governments and others.

“I found the whole program interesting and useful, from the shared experiences of the DTP alumni in Colombo and Kandy, the knowledge learnt about the Universal Periodic Review, the UNDRIP and many more UN conventions. I understood how the UN works and timelines, how to access information with the UN bodies, lobbying tactics, and many more.”

After every session, she had an interest to do her further reading on the links that were shared. She would like to work more on seasonal workers and migrant workers.

“I find that the safety of Human Rights Defenders is always threatened, so there are exciting times ahead for myself and others, when I have the opportunity to promote human rights.”