BANGKOK, Thailand -- Twenty Pakistani journalists and human rights defenders flew to the Thai capital of Bangkok on May 2-4 to participate in a unique training activity focusing on human rights protection and advocacy.

 Organized by Freedom House in partnership with the Bangkok-based Forum Asia, the three-day training underlined the importance of focusing on both advocacy and specific protection measures for media practitioners and human rights workers in Pakistan given increasing human rights violations in the region.

 The International News Safety Institute (INSI)-Asia which is hosted by the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD) in the Philippines was invited to facilitate the protection aspect of the training which covered a range of issues and topics including the establishment a national human rights institution in Pakistan.

 The participants, half of whom were female, came from the different regions of Pakistan including volatile areas like Balochistan, Peshawar and Waziristan which made for an interesting interaction between participants and between trainers and participants.