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First time in Mozambique
Training Course for Social Operators to work with minors

Mozambique, 13 October 2008. Training is a fundamental step to enable juvenile justice to be effective in Mozambique: for this reason, the Programme Strengthening Juvenile Justice in Mozambique is implementing several trainings to local counterparts. The first training for social operators was carried out on 13th-24th October in collaboration with the Centro de Formação Jurídica e Judiciária (CFJJ) of the Mozambican Ministry of Justice, with whom UNICRI has been collaborating since 2000.

The course provided in-depth training by a staff that had been previously trained in juvenile justice matters also thanks to the collaboration of the Italian Department of Juvenile Justice. The trainees, now social operators, will be subsequently appointed for the Observation and Education Center that UNICRI is currently rehabilitating. Among the participating 23 trainees, 4 were social workers already working for the Juvenile Court of Maputo and 19 had been previously selected through a national recruitment process carried out by the Ministry of Justice. The group represents the first team of social operators in the rehabilitation area (social workers, educators, psychologists) in charge of applying the new law on juvenile justice promulgated by the Mozambican government on July 2008. Indeed, they will be in charge of minors in conflict with the law housed in the Centres of Chiango (Observation and Educational Centre) of Maputo, the first rehabilitation structures of the country working in the juvenile justice area.

The training course consisted in preparing trainees on the juridical, psychological, social and pedagogical areas, so as to enable the operators dealing with minors under charge – according to the Mozambican law those who are under16 are not criminally responsible – to be fully ready to lead minors to an effective reintegration in the community while offering opportunities in the educational and training areas.

The training ended with a closure ceremony attended by the Vice-Director of the CFJJ, Mr. Carlos Serra, the coordinator of the teaching staff and National Director of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Samo Paulo Gonçalves, and the Head of Tribunal for Minors, Ms. Claudina Macuacua and the UNICRI Programme Coordinator, Ms. Andrea Rachele Fiore.

The ceremony closed awarding participants with certificates of attendance and a group photograph, which will remain in the Centre as a testimony of the first training course on juvenile justice in Mozambique. 

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