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BackgroundMHRRC was
established in September 1997 after a one-year pilot phase
with an overall objective of promoting and strengthening a
culture of human rights in Malawi. The MHRRC works with civil
society organizations to effectively support the developing
democracy in the country. MHRRC contributes towards the
consolidation of channels of free expression and other rights
for the citizens by working with and building the capacity
NGOs and CSOs working on human rights. The belief is that the
observance of human rights will in turn promote respect for
human dignity, equality and ultimately bring about prosperity
for the Malawi nation. This is being done against a background
and realization that prior to 1993, NGOs and Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) promoting human rights never existed and
freedom of expression and other rights were severely
curtailed. Thus, almost all human rights NGOs and other civil
society organizations continue to need resource support as
they are still in their early stages of development having
only came into being after 1993. Even those NGOs which may
have graduated into fully blown organizations still require
scaled-up support at their current levels of operation.
MHRRC
is a local Malawian institution registered under the Trustees
Incorporation Act. It is administered by a Board of Trustees
and is core-funded by Danida while its activities are funded
by various donors including CordAid, CIDA (GESP).
MHRRC’s current main donors are: Royal Norwegian Embassy,
GIZ, European Union, Irish Aid through Danish
Institute of Human Rights (DIHR), UNFPA, Population Council,
National Aids Commission, IPAS and Kellog Foundation. |