BURUNDI KUWA MWENYEJI WA MKUTANO WA AFRIKA YA MASHARIKI WA AMANI NA USALAMA

 

East African Community

PRESS RELEASE

BUJUMBURA TO HOST 2ND EAC PEACE AND SECURITY CONFERENCE

• This year’s theme is:’Promoting a culture of dialogue and tolerance for conflict prevention and peaceful co-existence’’

EAC Headquarters Arusha, Tanzania, 30 October 2013: The second East African Community (EAC) Peace and Security conference will be held in Bujumbura,Burundi from 13-15 November, 2013.

‘’The conference will provide the opportunity to dialogue on successful local initiatives in peace building, conflict prevention and resolution and to explore how other communities may learn from each other,’’ said Mr Charles Njoroge, EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation.

He added that about 150 peace and security experts, civil society, religious leaders, ministers, Non-governmental organisations, politicians, youth, women, media, relevant EAC ministries, among others, are expected to attend the three-day meeting.

According to the EAC official, participants will generate and exchange knowledge to inform and improve conflict prevention and resolution capacities as well as help define potential future activities for the region.

The theme for this year’s conference is: ‘’Promoting a culture of dialogue and tolerance for conflict prevention and peaceful co-existence’’.

The delegates are expected to assess peace and security challenges facing their communities, past experiences, best practices and identify operational steps that can be taken to promote dialogue, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

‘’The workshop will thus promote dialogue and collective learning and create space for collaborative action on peaceful co-existence,’’ concludes the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation.

The conference is being facilitated by the German International Development Agency (GIZ) in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat.

NOTE TO EDITORS

The Treaty establishing the East African Community stipulates promotion of peace, security and stability within, and good neighbourliness among EAC Partner States (Article 5 of Treaty) as one of its core objectives. The founders of the Community agreed that peace and security are prerequisites to social and economic development and vital to the achievement of the objectives of the Community.

The EAC is, therefore, endeavouring to build capacities and to establish policies and instruments for peace keeping, crisis prevention, early warning mechanisms and conflict transformation.