Category Archives: Africa

International Day of Non-Violence celebrations held in Nairobi, Kenya

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from the University of Nairobi

The United Nations International Day of Non-Violence celebrations were held at the University of Nairobi (UoN). The day which coincides with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence is celebrated every 3rd October.


Ms. Rajni Bakshi, an eminent Gandhi scholar presents the keynote speech.

The keynote address ‘Celebrating Ahimsa: Advances in Non-violence’ was delivered by Ms. Rajni Bakshi, an eminent Gandhi scholar and member of Executive Committee of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS) of India.

Ms. Bakshi called upon Kenyans and the world to uphold non-violence saying that one does not have to be a great soul in order to cultivate non-violence.

“Mahatma Gandhi once said that ‘non-violence is as old as the hills.’ This simply means that in history, non-violence existed,” she said. “Every day, the media reports news of violence in different parts of the world. One thing we need to understand is that violence will never get you power. This is a truth that cannot be overemphasized. To Gandhi, non-violence is simply a science…knowing what works and what does not work.”

Ms. Bakshi cited historical events and great quotes by Mahatma Gandhi that the world could embrace.

“A world with no violence can exist,” she said. “It is up to you to embrace each other and co-exist. We do not need guns to pass a point across. Let us emulate the life of Mahatma Gandhi because his life is his message.”

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Question for this article:

Can peace be guaranteed through nonviolent means?

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Amb. Tom Amolo, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that everyone can be involved in creating a culture of peace.

“We should start preaching peace to the youngest of minds,” he said. “We need to embrace non-violence in resolving conflict and embrace co-existence.”

He was speaking on behalf of the Cabinet, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Amina Mohamed.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Peter Mbithi in his remarks said that Mahatma Gandhi was an intensely active personality who unendingly inspires many people around the world.

“As a university, I urge you to uphold the universal purpose of non violence by promoting culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and integrity to our institution of learning,” he said. “It is therefore incumbent upon us to resist the pressure to think and conduct ourselves in a formatted manner. We must resist the temptation to give in to popular beliefs and choices without questioning and objectively investigating their real value to society.”

The Indian High Commissioner to Kenya, Madam Sanduchitra Durai, urged all to embrace the wise teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.

“His life history is his message to us,” she said. “We have so much to learn from him and that is why the UN marked this day as an international celebrations day.”

The Director-General, UNON, Ms Sahle-Work Zewde, said that the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi are relevant to Kenya given the current political situation.

“Let us uphold Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence even as we approach October 26, 2017 for the repeat presidential polls,” she said. “As Kenyans it is important for each one of us to embrace a culture tolerance.”

The event was organized by UoN, the United Nations Office in Nairobi, the Indian High Commission in Kenya and Kenya-India Friends Association (KIFA).

Africa, EDUCATION FOR PEACE

Lesotho: Local Government and the culture of peace

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article from Development for Peace Education NTLAFALO: THUTO, KHOTSO LE BOITJARO

In its partnership with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for dissemination of election education, the Development for Peace Education (DPE) held a series of workshops on the theme of “Local Government and the Culture of Peace” covering its allocated councils in the Berea and Leribe districts. The targets of, and participants in, these initiatives were DPE election educators team leader, the chiefs and selected secondary schools’ teachers ; as well as regular (political) phone-in radio talk show callers and opinion shapers of all known radio stations.

This was done cognizant of the fact participation in elections whether local or general / general had stubbornly stayed low despite multi-pronged, multi-stakeholder efforts to reverse this trend, and there was need to enthuse largest sections of the population to own their government by participation in its formation or birth through a popular choice. This in turn would lend the government the necessary integrity in the face of the various contending interests making demands of either service or protection, concessions or restrictions from the government. This proposition contrasts starkly with the obtaining scenarios where the majority of the populace would seem to have taken an “exit” from the public affairs or matters of the state and governance, and consider these as areas for indulging in conflict and friction.

All involved in these workshops in the end expressed their appreciation of their ample opportunity, feasibility, and potential ease of reclaiming their citizenship at local level through participation in local government; where everybody knows everybody in close communities, their history, connections, and social and antisocial traits, and all categories of achievements –and those given mandate of running community affairs are easy to monitor, advise or censure. Holding people thus elected accountable, it was agreed, would ultimately eliminate frequently occurring conflicts, and reproduce the culture of peace for which Basotho were known from the times of Moshoeshoe.

The culture of peace was defined as avoidance of violence in all its forms and manifestations, and elimination of conflict by tackling the root causes, not merely its occurrence. The various forms of violation were canvassed, including physical, gender, cultural, political, economic; together with their contextualisation and justification and the challenges of the changing times and social structure. The eminent elements of the culture of peace enumerated as (1) tolerance as opposed to confrontation; (2) equality of all persons regardless of their state of ability, gender, economic and other status; (3) cooperation and understanding instead of conflict; (4)seeking of friendship and partnership as opposed to creation of enemies; (5)harmonious co-existence with nature instead of its selfish exploitation; (6) respect for human rights in contrast to wanton disregard of such rights; (7)peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue instead of resort to war; (8) participatory democratic governance as opposed to dictatorship and unaccountable rule. Members of each of these categories were briefed on their specific importance for which they were included in the activity, and the instrumentality of their role in promoting participation in local government (elections) as a vehicle for building local peace.

From the outset the regular-caller “opinion leaders” were excited to get to know one another through meeting physically, hailing from the different districts of the country. They included both men (in majority) and women. They said this fact alone created or added to an urge of mutual accommodation and acceptance of one another as “rivals” followed by sizeable communities of loyal listeners of competing political identities / parties and independents.

Many of them were not meeting for the first time, since the organisers had employed the stratagem of bringing them together in this fashion in its two previous campaigns of public awareness and opinion survey activities under the tags of “The Government I want” (started in August 2015), and “The Lesotho I Want” (started in January 2016). They were urged to regularise the need for participation in local elections in their public-debate interventions through radio, and preach the philosophy of tolerance; building upon the budding culture where as participants in this callers’ forum had begun to wear their different (political) identities without being enslaved by them as instruments of animosity and conflict. They pledged to uphold the culture of peace in popularising their various parties’ platforms and highlighting the importance of local participation.

The teachers and their schools were chosen as partners in a voter turnout drive through competitions for pupil to get their parents and guardians to votes, prize debates on importance of local government; and for their universally recognised role as agents of socialisation – in that behalf capable of planting lasting messages on impressionable minds, hence the importance of having them on the peace culture train.

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Question related to this article:

How should elections be organized in a true democracy?

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The chiefs were included for their role as traditional authorities and in that capacity the first peace officers in terms of national administration norms and law, and for their non-partisan, unifying as permanently present mediators of community relations at various levels and in various forms. While teachers protested that they were not allowed to take part in party politics whereas they were expected to teach about it, the chiefs often complained that their respectability in community, and some said even said in the eye of the ministerial authorities, had faded or declined since the arrival of local government as it was tacitly taken to replace them. For their part, the chiefs were motivated with a reward for a chief whose Electoral Division scored the highest rate of voter turnout. The sessions were accompanied by drama performances highlighting local government resourcing, integrity, and efficiency.

These working gatherings brought out the ever-present disaffection with the continuing powerlessness of the people’s elected councils, their resource starvation, friction between the traditional authorities and the elected representatives, the councils and the central government, the imposition of anti-people candidates by the main political parties, and the self-willed nature of councillors; the use of councillor status for self-aggrandisement including abuse and desertion of communities – where some councillors actually outmigrated to places more in keeping with their new status. An exciting redefinition of the relationship of these tiers and categories that emerged from the callers’ forum was that the councillor should be viewed as a developer (montlafatsi), the chief as the ruler (mobusi) and the Government as benefactor (mofani oa matlotlo) – where the Government is obligated by call of duty and national accountability to enable local communities control over their resources and monetary wherewithal to exploit them according to their own named priorities, the elected representatives see to the welfare of community, and traditional authorities maintain peace and resolve conflicts. It was maintained that if each of these three “drivers” stayed in their lane as defined, there would not be any of the frequently named collisions.

The interlocutors strongly felt that if the national parties did not impose their grand conflicts on the choice of local candidates, the local populace had a history of fellow feeling, mutual sympathy, and sharing that ensured solidarity and resilience to regular crises – and their choices of personalities to manage their affairs was always based only on proven mettle of honesty in community affairs. A case was mentioned of main ruling party candidate who was eminently known to have led “anti-people” capturing of local facilities like the bus and taxi terminus, informal traders’ “mall” and district football ground in Leribe, whose prospective election was likely to lead to a dysfunctional council as the local community with its vendors’ association and other community organisations were already preparing for a grand show-down with him/her.

It was vehemently voiced that the anticipated reforms should perhaps also seek a national consensus that local elections should not field party candidates, because they were imposed and the party members were voting only to their headquarters directives. Not only did party councillors see themselves as answering first to their parties, but when parliamentarians became ministers, they abused their powers to hijack / divert locally dedicated resource, materials and equipment to their own localities, e.g infrastructure and utilities installations. At another level the district councils, which are supposed to be apex and fusion of all expressions of self-government at the local level, were cited as often spending monies on its own priorities at the expense of the local councils’ priorities. Resource starvation leading to tokenisation of the councils, campaign lies and unfulfilled promises, unresponsiveness of the councils; nepotism and favouritism in recruitment and opportunities like bursaries, etc. were depressing local government spirit in communities and needed rooting out.

The chiefs’ forums threw up broadly the same concerns, while highlighting how local government could be turned into an opportunity for tackling these challenges. It was noted that sadly the inception or return of local government (the first such form of government goes back to colonial times in 1960) under the country’s “second democracy” in 1997 took place under a canopy of intense political conflicts (which could only express itself most tragically in 1998), and it was widely touted by the rulers as a replacement of an imposed” hereditary rule of the chiefs with rule by elected people’s representatives and consolidation of democracy. The friction that followed led to intra-council tensions and clashes between the chiefs and the councils; which were diffused with a deliberate intervention of the NGOs to provide training on the functions of the councils, roles of elected and traditional authorities thereon, and conflict management techniques.it was felt the politicisation of local government since the introduction of political parties as council contestants (as opposed to the Development Councils of the Military Council and early Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) rule) was responsible for bitter relations with the chiefs.

The chiefs contended that that while local government had taken away from them their means of supplementing their upkeep through control of local resources, it had also left them still substantially responsible for community welfare as the council didn’t exercise real powers nor had their own budgets. The chiefs therefore deserved equal remuneration with the councillors, whose higher emoluments supposedly made them look down on the former. They felt, however that councillors couldn’t be given more powers over the community since they were only seasonal while chiefs were permanent by birth right. They, however, said while the areas of responsibility sometimes conflicted – supposedly as a result of the ministers who were ignorant about or incompletely committed to, the full essence of government- the functions of councillors were developments, while chiefs were overseers of community affairs / welfare, protectors of the law and punishment of deviants threatening such developments and local tranquility.

Africa, DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

African Union and UN sign Memorandum of Understanding for Peacebuilding

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An article from the Agence Anadolu (translated by CPNN)

The African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday to promote joint cooperation in strengthening peace and stability in Africa.

“The goal of signing the Memorandum of Understanding is to provide a framework and to strengthen cooperation for the support of peacebuilding and peace efforts in Africa,” the AU said in a statement on its website.

The communiqué considered the memorandum of understanding as a concrete step towards the implementation of the “common framework of the United Nations and the African Union to strengthen partnership in the field of peace and security”.

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(Click here for the article in French.)

Question(s) related to this article:

What is the United Nations doing for a culture of peace?

Can the African Union help bring a culture of peace to Africa?

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On 19 April 2017, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Chadian Moussa Faki, signed a new framework to strengthen partnership in the field of peace and security.

According to its signatories, the Memorandum of Understanding “will continue to strengthen coordination of the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union and contribute to a more predictable strategic partnership in the areas of conflict prevention, political dialogue, reconciliation, democratic governance and human rights “.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the commissioner of the Peace and Security Council of the pan-African organization, Algerian Smail Chergui, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacebuilding, Oscar Fernandez.

The memorandum was signed at the headquarters of the Permanent Mission of the African Union in New York, on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Africa, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Mali: Ségou: capital of peace and national reconciliation of the regions of central Mali

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Douba Dembele for Mali Actu

The urban commune of Ségou hosted on 7, 8 and 9 September two consultations on peace and national cohesion. Participants from the Mopti and Niono, Macina and Tominian areas in the Ségou region came for two days of reflection and identification of lasting solutions to their intra and intercommunal conflicts.


The town of Ségou (for illustrative purposes)

140 representativers took part in the meeting. It was initiated by the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, with funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, accompanied by the Ministry of National Reconciliation. As a result of the meeting, an additional day of exchange, information and awareness-raising on the mission to support reconciliation and support teams was held on Saturday, 9 September, at the same venue as the previous session, the conference room of the Governorate of Ségou. The work of this day was attended by some forty delegates from the 7 areas of the region of Ségou.

The delegates, chosen on the basis of their social influence and their involvement in the management of conflicts in their areas, were mostly civil society leaders. These included village chiefs, religious leaders, traditional communicators and journalists. Organized by the Ministry of National Reconciliation in partnership with the Reconciliation Support Mission and the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, the one-day meeting was also suppoted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This meeting in Ségou brought together actors from Douentza, Tenekou, Mopti, Djenné, Youwarou, Koro, Bankass, Ké-Macina, Niono and Tominian areas. The head of the mission of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Hama Amidou Diallo, set the scene for the meeting. According to him, the Ségou meeting, like that of Mopti, is in keeping with the actions taken to promote social dialogue within the communities, through intra-community and inter-community meetings organized at the village, communes, circles and in the regional capitals. The result should be the safeguarding of social peace and the consolidation of living together.

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(Click here for the French version of this article.)

Question related to this article:

Pan-African initiatives for peace: Are they advancing?

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The head of cabinet of the Ministry of National Reconciliation welcomed the meeting in Ségou, affirming that it aims to reinforce the actions carried out by his department as part of its strategy of reconciliation. He also urged each of the participants to call for the promotion of the culture of peace and non-violence. The governor of the region of Ségou, Georges Togo, who presided over the meeting, was pleased to see Mali’s communities gather in Segou to forgive and build lasting peace in their respective localities, based on societal values.

At the end of the meeting, on Friday, 8 September, the participants drew up a series of recommendations for peace, social cohesion and living together. It should be noted that the meeting of Ségou mainly brought together actors from the communities, Bamanan, Peul and Dogon of the circles cited above.

The Segou meeting was attended by the head of the mission, Modibo Kadjogué, the head of cabinet of the Ministry of National Reconciliation, Colonel Moussa Zabou Maïga, the governor of Ségou, economic operator Djadié Bah de Niono, himself chairman of the committee for monitoring peace and reconciliation in his circle, and many other personalities from the Ségou region.

The Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Reconciliation presented the missions of his ministry and the objectives of the mission to support peace and national reconciliation. He added that the State alone can not bring peace without the involvement of communities at the grassroots level, that the Department of National Reconciliation has set up the support mission to reconciliation. For the best functionality of the objectives of this unit, it was decided to establish regional support teams in all regions of Mali.

The conclusion for Segou was the proposal of moral personalities committed to social cohesion, for the establishment of the regional team of Segou, composed of 7 members. This team, once installed, will be involved in preventing and managing conflicts in all circles in the region.

With the two meetings held in Segou, it can be said that Segou had become the capital of the humanitarian dialogue for the regions of central Mali. It should be recalled that the region of Ségou has been affected by intra and inter-community conflicts, notably in the circles of Macina and Niono. Also, the Tominian Circle has received displaced persons following similar conflicts in the Mopti region.

Africa, DISARMAMENT & SECURITY

Africa: International Day of Peace

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A survey by CPNN

The following 81 events in 29 African countries were listed in “Google News” during the week of September 21-28 under the key words “International day of peace” and “Journée internationale de la paix.” This also includes some events listed on the websites of the Global Feast for Peace, and event map for the International Day of Peace. It is likely that there were articles in other local languages that are not listed here.


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Here are excerpts from the articles.

GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Our friends in Goma celebrated Peace Day with a football match, participatory theatre show (pictured), live music and a march for peace, ending the day with some words of hope from the city’s mayor and a commitment to peace in DRC. Thanks to our partners Interpeace, ISSSS, Search for Common Ground and MSI for a wonderful day.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA: The African Union (AU) in partnership with the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU), Oxfam International, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) organized a panel discussion on the theme, “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend: Meaningful Youth Inclusion in Peace-Building”, on the occasion of the International Day of Peace (Peace Day) 21 September 2017.

HO, GHANA: Rev. Monsignor Kornu was addressing a peace forum between the Nkonyas and Alavanyos in Ho to mark the International Day of Peace celebrations, which was on the theme: Together for Peace, Respect, Dignity and Safety for all.

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Eastern Africa Standby Force joined the rest of the world in celebrating the International Day of Peace on Thursday, 21st September 2017 in Karen, Nairobi. The day’s events started with the traditional Peace Walk which was led by the Kenya Army Band along the streets of Karen up to St. Nicholas Children’s Home; a home for orphaned children dedicated to giving these young people a fair chance and hope for the future.

LIBERIA : Peace Walk and Youth Peace Talk organized by Messengers of Peace-Liberia Inc (MOP) in collaboration with United Nations Mission in Liberia with support from UNDP and UN Peacebuilding Fund at the launch of the “Enhancing Youth Participation in the 2017 Legislative and Presidential Electoral Process,” and the commemoration of the International Day of Peace. . . . . It was gratifying to be graced by representatives from UNDP, UNMIL, UNFPA, UN Women, ECOWAS, Ministries of Youths & Sports, Justice, Information, Culture Affairs & Tourism, Rotary Club of Monrovia, National Civil Society Council and the media. Over six hundred students from thirty schools in Montserrado, Bomi, Bong and Margibi counties attended and listened keenly to the peace talk among members of the political parties.

BLANTYRE, MALAWI : People in Blantyre on Friday 22nd September 2017 joined their friends across the world to commemorate this year’s global International Day of Peace which was organised by the People’s Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP). . . . peaceful processions which started from Old Town Hall, via Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) to Blantyre Chichiri Shopping Mall and back to the Old Town Hall.

NIAMEY, NIGER : Our country, like the international community, celebrated today, 21 September, the International Day of Peace. Under the patronage of SEM Birigi Refinei, Prime Minister, head of government, the activities that took place in the course of this day were held this morning at the martial Arts Academy in Niamey.

ABUJA, NIGERIA : Nigerian youths across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, congregated in Abuja, where the unity and peaceful coexistence among the Nigeria people was unequivocally addressed. The event, which had the theme ‘Together for Peace: Respect, safety and dignity for all’, was organised at the instance of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, under the leadership of Dr Dickson Akoh.

IKORODU, NIGERIA : As the world celebrate the International Day of Peace, a Non-governmental organisation, African Democratic Development Initiative, religious leaders and stakeholders in Ikorodu Lagos State have advocated for a society that is all inconclusive and violence free. The celebration was held, today Friday at the Ikorodu Local Government Secretariat.

LAGOS, NIGERIA : Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has acknowledged the role of citizens’ mediation in the promotion of peaceful co-exientence in the State, assuring that his administration would establish more centres in all the nooks and crannies of the State. . . . Ambode spoke at the celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

KIGALI, RWANDA : To mark the day, over 400 Rwandan youth from across the country convened at Parliamentary Buildings in Kimihurura, Kigali to deliberate on different interventions of promoting values of respect towards more peaceful families. The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) together with its partners aim to enhance citizens’ capacity to analyse the root causes of conflicts, facilitate dialogue, and appreciate diversity to ensure sustainable peace and development.

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE : The Day was commemorated at the Saint Antony Hall on Skye Street, Brookfieds, Freetown with several state and non-state actors deliberating on the need for peace, credible, free and fair elections in 2018.

CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA : Residents and foreign nationals commemorated the International Day of Peace by launching an organisation that aims to promote harmony between them. The Association for Refugee Communities and Organisations in South Africa (ARCOSA) was launched last Thursday at the Blue Hall, in Site C, Khayelitsha. The launch was done in partnership with Cape Town Refugee Centre (CTRC) and Peace Builders Team.

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA : From 19-21 September 2017, ACCORD conducted a training for political officers working in the African Union Situation room in the Conflict Early Warning Systems (CEWS) which was held in Durban, South Africa.

HARARE, ZIMBABWE : A dialogue forum was held today at the UN Information Centre in Harare to celebrate the International Day of Peace.

KAMPALA, UGANDA : To celebrate the International Day of Peace, SOUTH SUDANESE STUDENTS studying at universities in Uganda are embracing their country’s cultural diversity to foster peace rather than focusing on tribal differences that have torn apart South Sudan in a nearly four-year-long conflict. The South Sudanese Students’ Union in Uganda organized a festival in Kampala as part of a series of events marking the United Nation’s International Day of Peace on September 21, whose theme this year is: “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.” Organizers said the event brought together South Sudanese communities and students in Uganda who have been divided along tribal and political lines.

CAPE VERDE : Under the motto “Together for Peace: Respect, Dignity and Security for All” is celebrated on September 21, World Peace Day. The Cape Verde National Commission for UNESCO, in partnership with the Ministry of Family and Social Inclusion, through the General Directorate of Immigration, will celebrate the day on Thursday, at the Manuel Lopes Secondary School in Calabaceira, starting at 09h. The event is attended by the Minister of Family and Social Inclusion, Maritza Rosabal. (translated by CPNN from the Portuguese original)

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Question for this article

What has happened this year (2017) for the International Day of Peace?

(Survey continued from the left column)

(Note: the following events are translated by CPNN from the original French)

COTONOU, BENIN : “Peace is a matter for all, without discrimination of region and religion”. This is the message yesterday to the people of Cotonou by the Scouts on the occasion of the International Day of Peace. Organized by the Agro-Mechanical Center in Ouidah (Camo), these events, which took place at the Placodji Public Elementary School, were massively attended by pupils, teachers and parents. There were also the Scouts of the University Districts of the Injeps of Porto-Novo and Lokossa and those of the districts Notre Dame and Monsignor Isidore de Souza of Cotonou.

BURUNDI, RWANDA AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO : On the occasion of the International Day of Peace celebrated on 21 September, 1,500 young people from Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC met in Goma to discuss peace. They participated in workshops on peace and gender and a charity concert.

BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC : Among the activities planned in Bangui, this Thursday, an official ceremony will be held at the Omnisports Stadium in Bangui, in the presence of the national authorities and the leadership of MINUSCA, followed by a photo exhibition at UNMIS headquarters in Bangui. . . .The International Day of Peace will also see a gathering of solidarity with the returnees, returnees and refugees from Bangui around the Abel Goumba roundabout. An activity organized with the Women’s Network of the MINUSCA Police in partnership with the Forces of Internal Security (FSI). A peace caravan initiated by the National Youth Council (CNJ) will travel through all the boroughs of the capital followed by the final of the Peace Tournament organized by the Bangui Football League.

COMORES : Like the other countries of the world, the Comoros celebrated, yesterday Thursday 21 September, the International Day of Peace. The ceremony took place at the council of the island of Ngazidja, in the presence of the political, military and religious authorities of the country. It was sponsored by the Salam association, an NGO working for the consolidation and maintenance of peace.

KANANGA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO : About 500 people gathered at Independence Square in Kananga to commune and commit to Peace, a theme chosen by MONUSCO to celebrate the International Day of Peace. One year after the beginning of violence and repression in the region, the celebration of the International Day of Peace is of particular importance in Kananga.

KASAI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO : For four days, the forum on peace in the Great Kasai was held in Kananga, capital of the Central Kasai. It was closed by a reconciliation ceremony, followed by rejoicing. Despite this, we must admit that questions remain unanswered.

LINGWALA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO : Inspired by the principles advocated by Unesco, namely peace and the quality of education, the kindergarten children of the Academic Complex ACADEMIA celebrated yesterday Thursday with enthusiasm the International Day of Peace . . . Their performance of the song “We Advocate Peace” was highly applauded by the representative of the parents’ committee and the teaching staff at the headquarters of this private school, associated with Unesco.

GABON : Under the label of UNESCO, 103 Gabonese NGOs are fighting for peace as the women of other African countries already do. In this spirit, the Association A ‘Soif, whose founder is none other than Victoire Lasseni Duboz, celebrated the International Day of Peace. . . . Before a rich audience of all nationalities and representatives of UNESCO, the patroness of A’SOIF highlighted the different missions that this association is focused on and presented the plans for a national network of women for peace. “Through this network, 103 women’s NGOs unite to be apostles of peace in Gabon, while placing emphasis on poverty and unemployment which are real factors for the destitution of peace in a state”, hammered Francine Meviane, General Secretary of the National Network of Women for Peace. This UNESCO initiative is already established in several African countries with a clear ambition to create a pan-African network of women for peace.

CONAKRY, GUINEA : On the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Peace . . . it was before a heterogeneous audience of Guinean and Senegalese writers, artists and other actors of civil society that the ambassador of peace Elhadj Djériba DIABY addressed the audience in a language full of humility and wisdom . ” The peace ! The peace ! Growing peace, without it, there is no development. I am deeply touched by this day because it marks a very important turning point in my life as a peace ambassador not only in Guinea but also throughout Africa. . . . As for the President of the Writers’ Association of Guinea, he also made his messages to the public in order to build a Guinea in peace : “The writer is a shepherd, a lighthouse that can put gunpowder or which can extinguish the fire by his pen. His works must therefore unify, educate, sensitize and inform and at the other end, peace is the central link for all human activities, which is essential to humans in their evolutionary process. So the book helps to understand the importance of peace, freedom and the consequences of war. It would then be opportune to say that this day must call on the young people to invest themselves in the reading to better understand the importance of peace. . . . The day not only allowed the youth to touch the hands of the recommendations of these men of peace but also to enroll in an impulse promoting the behaviors of respect for others. It was also an opportunity for exchanges between the youth and the writers.

LA REUNION : Eric Magamootoo, former President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is visiting Réunion and will be hosting a conference on the theme of Peace and Living Together in Reunion on Thursday September 21st in St Pierre. At the same time, there will be a symbolic olive-tree planting by the Mayor of Saint Pierre and Mr Magamootoo today at the Edith Piaf school in Saint Pierre and there will also be a conference “L’olivier et la paix” at the media library Antoine Louis Roussin in St Benoît

MADAGASCAR : To mark the celebration of the International Day of Peace on September 21, 2017, the Regional Tourist Office of Analamanga ORTANA and the Rotary Club Antananarivo Ainga will organize a distribution of honey for all in the Garden of Antaninarenina this Thursday, September 21, 2017 starting at 09:00. . . . In the Malagasy tradition, honey is important and ubiquitous, whether to celebrate, welcome or bless, honey is definitely anchored in Malagasy culture.

MALI : As part of the celebration of the International Day of Peace, the Association of Journalists for Peace and Non-Violence (AJPV), in partnership with GENOVICO, organized a conference-debate on the theme: to have a more professional press in Mali. It was moderated by Sadou Abdoulaye Yattara, Journalist, Expert in Communication, Advocacy and Media Education, at the Djoliba Center, on Friday, 22 September 2017.

TOGO : On September 18, 2017, the Regional Office for West Africa of the International Organization of la Francophonie hosted some 30 young people for an awareness-raising and training workshop on the values ​​and tools of animation of the initiative “Libres ensemble.” Initiated by the Association les Messagers de la Jarre de Paix (AMJP), the workshop is organized as a prelude to the International Day of Peace.

In addition to the above events, there are a number of events in Africa listed on the event map for the International Day of Peace, including in SONDU, KENYA, as well as ENTEBBE, UGANDA and TAMALE, GHANA and the Buhera rural district of ZIMBABWE.

Many cities and communities are members of the International Peace Cities network and the following are listed on the Global Feast Map as celebrating a feast to mark the International Day of Peace:

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: Bukavu, Fizi, Lubumbashi, Goma, Uvira, North and South Kivu, Kasongo-Lunda.

NIGERIA: Warrake, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Uyo, Benin City, Warri, Port Harcourt, Lafia, Sukkur, Ibadan

KENYA: Nairobi, Nakuru, Oyugis, Ringa, Homa Bay, Ogamo, Kakamega

MALAWI: Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Chikwawa

SOUTH SUDAN: Nyala (Darfur), Juba

BURUNDI: Bujumbura, Gitega, Rohero, Ngozi

UGANDA: Kampala, Wakiso, Luweero, Wobulezi, Kabale

RWANDA: Kibuye, Kabare

CAMEROON: Douala, Bameneda, Kumbo, Buea

GHANA: Accra

LIBERIA: Monrovia, Voinjama,Lofa

SOMALIA: Hargeisa, Mogadishu

SIERRA LEONE : Freetown

TANZANIA : Zanzibar City, Dodoma

GUINEA : Conakry

GAMBIA : Banjul

Africa, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Uncategorized,

Feminist icons join bid to upend Congo’s rape capital reputation

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Sebastien Malo from the Thomson Reuters Foundation

Leading feminist figures from around the world lent their support on Thursday to scores of Congolese women gathered in a bid to end the Central African country’s rape epidemic.

Giving women a role in peace efforts in the conflict-torn nation could help address its astronomical rate of sexual violence, they said, which has earned it the tag of “rape capital of the world.”

More than 400,000 women are raped in Congo every year, and much of the sexual violence is considered to be a by-product of years of fighting.

The women, hailing from each of Congo’s provinces and meeting in Kinshasa, linked up via social media with Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee and Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem in New York.

Involving Congolese women in ending the nation’s ongoing political turmoil would help establish the law and order needed to prevent rape, they said.

Gbowee, who was co-awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace and women’s rights, warned against incendiary politics getting in the way.

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Question related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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“Peace is more important than any political ideology,” she said.

“You have to tell yourselves ‘For us to start this journey, for us to work together collectively to sustain the peace in Congo, we have to put aside those things that will easily take us from on track’.”

A string of ethnically motivated attacks including rapes has been reported in recent months as Congo’s government has been fighting insurgents in the central Kasai region.

Violence in Congo follows President Joseph Kabila’s decision to stay in power beyond the end of his two-term mandate. It has escalated amid fears that a presidential election may not take place.

Speaking from her native South Africa, Navi Pillay, the former U.N. rights chief who rose to prominence as an anti-apartheid lawyer, said she was reminded of her own country’s struggles in establishing democracy for all.

“I feel for you right now because we also twenty years ago started like you did, we got into a room, all the women,” she said.

“Even though we disagreed with one another, we agreed on the principle points we want which is equality and fundamental rights and democracy.”

Gbowee, Steinem and Pillay were joined on the Donor Direct Action Facebook Live broadcast by television series creator Lena Dunham, actress Meryl Streep and Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, who called Congo the rape capital in comments she made as a United Nations Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Nigeria: Tourism, way out of recession

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from the Nigerian Tribune

Tourism, arts and culture have been identified as major catalyst for any growing economy which of properly harnessed by Nigerians can take the country out of its present economic recession.

The founder of a Non Governmental Organisation, ZITADEL, Samuel Oluwadamilare Omorege, who stated this in Akure, Ondo State capital during a press conference to launch Sustainable Tourism Art & Culture, Industrialisation Education Poverty (STACIEP).

Omorege however advocated for more investment in tourism, arts and culture to unlock the potential of this sector to enhance economic prosperity for the country.

He also called on government at all levels to reawaken the traditional and cultural heritage of Nigeria as a means of eradicating poverty and to generate employment for the unemployed youths across the country.

Omorege noted “certain aspects of Nigerian cultural and traditional heritage had been consigned to archaic decay” and called for a reversal of the trend and a genuine measures to place the nation’s heritage on the world map.

He disclosed that ZITADEL is committed to showcasing the traditional and cultural heritage of Africa, especially Nigeria and called Omorege for collaborative efforts from all stakeholders to make the dream a reality.

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Question related to this article:

How can tourism promote a culture of peace?

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He said with population of Nigerian’s citizens in dire need of peace for sustainable development, his NGO is out to advocate and work for the peace of the land with the new concept of developing the tourism, art and culture sector.

“The total eradication of poverty is an essential condition for peaceful co-existence in a country of close to 200 million people like Nigeria. And without peace, sustainable development and sustainable comfortable lifestyle cannot be achieved.

“Nigeria as it is today is in dire need of a culture of peace and non -violence. Whereas one simplistic approach to the problem is to actively encourage the culture of appreciating of each others’ cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity”.

Omorege who said the goal of his NGO is in tandem with the UNDP’s vision 2030 said the idea of STACIEP is to use Tourism, Art and Culture industry as a fast means of poverty eradication endengered by creative ideas, expanded talent hunt and international cultural exchange programmes, networking and partnership for rapid economic growth.

He applauded ZITADEL National patron, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, the matron, Princess Ronke Ademuluyi and the patron Chief Akinyemi Akinremi for their support thus far saying that STACIEP is a new concept in the development, presentation and preservation of the rich African Arts and Culture and targeted at meeting UNDP’s vision 2030.

He, however, said the initiative would go a long way to create employment for young Nigerians, disclosing that STACIEP will this month, August take a cultural troupe from Nigeria to Notting Hill Carnival 2017 in the United Kingdom while a group of Nigerians will also participate in African fashion show in London.

Africa, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Cape Verde: Youth take human rights to the streets

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

An article from Expresso das Ilhas (translated by CPNN)

The Youth for Peace group, in partnership with the National Commission for Human Rights and Citizenship (CNDHC), is carrying out a public reading of the universal charter of Human Rights. The initiative is part of the campaign “Human rights do not go on vacation”.

Through the public reading of Human Rights, the mentors of this initiative hope to make known and promote the practice among citizens and thus contribute to a “culture of peace and healthy coexistence between people.”

Taking advantage of the holidays – but asserting its motto “Human rights do not go on vacation” – a group of young people visited the beaches of Prainha and Quebra Canela on Saturday (12), International Youth Day and making use of this year’s slogan of (Peace Building Youth) tried to get their message across to the bathers.

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(Click here for the original version of this article in Portuguese)

Question related to this article:

What is the state of human rights in the world today?

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Coming soon, the market in Sucupira will receive the reading of some of the articles that appear in the letter of Human Rights and other neighborhoods and public spaces of the City of Praia will also receive this intervention of the group of Young People for Peace. In this way they want to make the Communities “more and better acquainted with Human Rights and young people with better mastery of reading and knowledge for the practical application of Rights”.

In 2016, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the United Nations adopted the slogan “Defend the Rights of Someone Today”, considering that “Disrespect for basic human rights continues to be widespread in all parts of the world. Our human values are under attack, and we must reaffirm our common humanity.”

At the end of July, the Youth for Peace group launched the “Life is Beautiful” program dedicated to children and aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles for children, contributing to the awareness of saying no to alcohol and other drugs.

Youth for Peace – JxP is a worldwide youth movement that was born in the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, created in Rome and today present in several countries. It is an international movement that strives to promote peace and mediation of conflicts and promotes a culture of meetings and fraternity. The JxP group in Praia will complete this year its fourth year of existence.

Africa, HUMAN RIGHTS

Peace Clubs: Rwanda’s post-genocide search for renewal

… . HUMAN RIGHTS … .

An article by Valerie Hopkins, reprinted by the Global Campaign for Peace Education

Felix Kanamugire was a killer during the Rwandan genocide, when between 800,000 and one million people, primarily Tutsis, were killed over the course of three months in 1994.

For his crimes, he was among the 120,000 men and women imprisoned in the aftermath of the slaughter. Once released in 2011, he returned to his village in southern Rwanda, near the border with Burundi, and tried to keep a low profile.


Irene Mukaruziga, second from right, a genocide survivor whose husband was killed by her Hutu neighbour says forgiveness was a hard path for her (Photo: Valerie Hopkins / Al Jazeera)

For his crimes, he was among the 120,000 men and women imprisoned in the aftermath of the slaughter. Once released in 2011, he returned to his village in southern Rwanda, near the border with Burundi, and tried to keep a low profile.

“When I came out of jail and I reached home, I knew there were relatives of a lot of people I killed and property I looted. It was too much fear. How could I approach these people?”

Kanamugire, who is now 57, was worried about running into one neighbour, in particular, Irene Mukaruziga, because he had killed her husband and destroyed her house.

“I would hide or take a longer route so as not to see her,” says Kanamugire.

From truth to reconciliation

One day, his friend told him that he could discuss these things in a group, known as a Peace Club, that met once a week near the village of Muganza, close to his home, where perpetrators could discuss their guilt and move forward.

“There was good teachings in how to ask for forgiveness,” he says.
“Initially, we sat in separate groups, but we have to take a step. They told us, ‘Don’t fear them [the survivors], you know what you did’.”

Eventually, he says, he went to seek forgiveness from Mukaruziga, who had sought monetary compensation for her destroyed property during a community trial known as “gacaca”.

“I decided one morning to go to her. I went to her neighbour and asked him to escort me. I looked for 10,000 Rwandan Francs [about $12]. She gave us a place to sit. It was like coming from heaven. I said, ‘I’m here to ask for forgiveness.’ My heart was pounding. They said, give me 10,000 Francs. I felt someone was removing my burden when she said ‘OK.’”

Mukaruziga says forgiveness was a hard path for her.

“I lost almost everyone in the genocide,” she says. “My neighbour did a lot of bad things – destroyed my house, took everything. He went to jail, but his wife stayed at their house. All the time, I couldn’t bear to see his wife and kids.”

Slowly, she says, after sitting together in the same discussion group, she started to feel ready to forgive Kanamugire.

“Before, I would never step into his house. Even if it were raining, I would never dare,” says Mukaruziga. “We only started to speak because of the club. Because of those teachings, things came into my heart. Now, we have a lot in common. The teaching and the counselling has been helpful. They teach us how to identify hate and indicators of when things are going wrong.”

Kanamugire says that through these meetings, “I have uprooted that hatred that was inside of me”.

But, despite his transformation, he says the Monday unity exercises remain one of the most important parts of his week.

“We don’t pretend to think it is done. This has to be a continuous process.”

Fractured classrooms

The Peace Club attended by Kanamugire and Mukaruziga is supported by the London-based NGO International Alert. Hundreds of such clubs have sprung up across the country to bring together survivors and perpetrators of the genocide – with a special focus on those who were born in its aftermath.

In Rwanda, which today has a population of 11.6 million, more than 60 percent of the population is under 24 years old, too young to personally remember the genocide.

Since the end of the genocide, the government, led for 17 years by Paul Kagame, has pursued an official policy of unity and reconciliation, which emphasises Rwandan-ness rather than an affiliation as Hutu or Tutsi – categories imposed by Belgian colonial rulers that were arbitrarily based on a combination of factors including an individual’s wealth, skin tone, and nose size.

The Belgian colonisers had favoured Tutsis, and when they left in 1962, the Hutu-led government began persecuting the Tutsi minority. In seeking to close the circle, the government has made nationwide de-ethnicisation a priority and imposed strong restrictions on how the genocide can be discussed.

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Question related to this article:

Truth Commissions, Do they improve human rights?

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However, bullying based on a pupil’s family background is present in schools, where learning is especially difficult for orphans, the children of survivors, and those who have a parent in prison.

While survivors and the children of survivors often receive material support, sometimes the children of parents who are or were incarcerated do not receive assistance, which causes rifts between pupils, explains Evariste Shumbushuya, 24, whose father was in prison while he was in high school.

“Often, when you feel bad, you blame the kids [of survivors] for putting your parents in jail,” he says. But this changed when he joined a Peace Club in his second year of high school.

“Before I joined the club, there are a lot of things I had no idea about,” he recalls. “I realised they were getting this assistance because they had no parents. Most conflict you could see at school, it was because of these kinds of differences. It was tension that was not very open, but it was there. Some kids fought in the classrooms; there were bitter exchanges, like ‘Your parents killed my parents’.”

Lack of critical thinking

Shumbushuya now runs the club, called Urumuri Amahoro, which means “Light of Peace”. Its 71 members, who are between the ages of 15 and 25, assemble every Friday afternoon and share poems or act out plays that explore the themes of conflict and reconciliation.

“There are all kinds of narratives we get from our parents, some true and some not true. And this is the source of conflict between us. As we continued, we became aware how parents are poisoning their children,” Shumbushuya says.

He hopes to further bind his club’s members to one another through small cooperative projects, like pooling money to buy a goat that produces milk and cheese and will eventually bear offspring that they can share.

They also do farming and community service for the parents of impoverished members of their group.

“When we can change a child, their parents will also change.”
Silas Sebatware, who teaches history and geography at the village school, runs another Peace Club. In his club, like in so many others, they use scenarios, cartoons, and plays to discuss discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes and domestic violence.

“As a group, we interpret images which are not always straightforward to understand,” he says.

“This is important because it builds critical thinking.”

Sebatware says they also pay special attention to those who broke the mould of violence in genocide and rescued people, to teach students not to be bystanders.

“The clubs are also designed to provide information to younger generations who do not know the history of colonialism and the genocide,” says Jean Nepo Ndahimana, a former teacher who runs a training programme for educators with Aegis Trust, the organisation that runs the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

However, building societal change is tremendously difficult after generations of colonial rule and governments who privileged the majority Hutus over the Tutsis.

“Our parents were educated about violence by the government since the colonial period,” he says. “From 1962 until the genocide, the government emphasised discrimination and our curricula were designed to divide us. The government was doing what Trump is doing now in America – I mean, who is not an immigrant in America today?”

He says discrimination and hatred were incorporated into every subject. “An instructor in mathematics once put a question on a test: ‘If you have five Tutsis and you kill two, how many are left?’”

Now, he says, “efforts are being made in Rwanda to make people believe we do not have a different culture. We are trying to dig deep and find our roots.”

Before his organisation started training teachers in peace education in 2009, some teachers were apprehensive about discussing the genocide in the classroom, which left students reliant on their parents for information, which can be transmitted with bias.

“In an assessment developed in 2012, some teachers are scared to discuss the genocide, so sometimes they just skip it,” he says. As a result, when he would organise workshops for young people, he says, “students were not aware of what had happened”.

Since then, he and his colleagues have trained more than 940 teachers, each of whom has started a Peace Club in their schools. Moreover, in 2015, the Rwandan government overhauled its curriculum to include peace education in every subject, including mathematics and language classes.

“One of the factors that made the genocide possible was a lack of critical thinking skills,” explains Ndahimana. 

“Perpetrators say they committed crimes because ‘the government told us to kill’. But someone with critical thinking skills can ask themselves, ‘Why?’

The reporting of this story was made possible by a fellowship from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Africa, HUMAN RIGHTS

Rwanda: Building Resilience to Genocide through Peace Education: Concepts, Methods, Tools and Impact

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from Aegis Trust

A three-day Colloquium in Kigali in February brought together academics and practitioners in and around the field of peace education to share concepts, methods and means of measuring impact, contributing to a stronger evidence base for the effectiveness of peace education. The Colloquium report has now been published.

You can download it here: 
Building Resilience to Genocide through Peace Education: Concepts, Methods, Tools and Impact

Three interesting takeaways from the Colloquium:

1.  Building resilience against genocide requires critical thinking about the process of identity-based violence and its reversal.

2.  The content of peace education programmes matters: interactive role-play type activities have been shown to have a longer lasting impact.

3.  Unhealed wounds need to be addressed to prevent a repeat of violence; psychosocial support must accompany peace education to reduce anxiety, which can be an obstacle when accessing empathy.

Colloquium background

The Aegis Trust’s peace-building work in Rwanda began ahead of the establishment of the Kigali Genocide Memorial that opened in 2004. From 2013-16 Aegis led the Rwanda Peace Education Programme, a partnership including Radio La Benevolencija (producer of the Radio broadcast “Musekeweya” -New Dawn), the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) and the USC Shoah Foundation. This programme contributed to delivering peace education training to more than 60,000 educators, young Rwandans and Rwandan communities.

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Question for this article:

Where is peace education taking place?

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A major achievement resulting from the consortium’s advocacy has been that the Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Education has integrated Peace and Values education into the school curriculum. In a new phase of work Aegis is now supporting the implementation of the revised national curriculum that has integrated peace and values education (2016-19).

The colloquium itself

At the Colloquium in February, panellists examined the social, political and cultural triggers that enable the process of dehumanisation. Individuals are not born violent, they are socialised into becoming violent. Understanding the process of dehumanisation and its reversal was explored by speakers drawing out valuable insights. Experiences of peace education in different contexts demonstrated how interactive content, such as role-plays or interactive exercises have a major influence on longer-term attitudinal changes.

Core skills, values and knowledge that are central to peace education include critical thinking, listening, empathy, trust, and personal responsibility. Interlinkages between these values were explored, deepening our understanding of how unresolved trauma can affect the ability to empathise. Critical thinking and positive values were discussed confirming that critical thinking on its own is not enough to promote peace. It must be accompanied by positive values (empathy, caring) as these guide us in what we decide to think or do. Developing individuals’ sense of personal responsibility is closely linked with their sense of agency (their belief that they can act or make a difference). The sharing of a range of experiences of working with these values affirmed existing best practice.

 A range of approaches and tools to measure peace, the risk of genocide, and individual attitude changes were discussed, providing invaluable insights on impact assessment to participating organisations. Resulting from the Colloquium Aegis has been working on its own Impact Tool to assess increased resilience to identity-based violence or genocide.

The Aegis Trust extends thanks to the UK Department for International Development (DfID) for funding the Colloquium and the Genocide Research and Reconciliation Programme.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins and the Global Campaign for Peace Education for pointing us to this article)

Africa, EDUCATION FOR PEACE