Civil Society serves as a pillar of democratic systems, playing an important role in democracy and good governance for pre-and post-conflict societies. CSOs play a critical role in developing, monitoring human rights situations, implementing strategies that promote peace and security, monitoring implementation of agreements, and providing recommendations and information to decision-makers or human rights and advocacy groups. Such monitoring can work to hold governments and armed groups accountable for human rights abuses including recruitment of children as soldiers.
On June 14th, the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) Mediation Support Unit (MSU) concluded a three-day workshop
on CSO Forum for peace in Rajaf, South Sudan. The overall objective
of the workshop was to provide a platform for advanced constructive dialogue on
mechanisms for creating a CSOs forum for dialogue, mediation and peace
building. The CSOs were drawn from Child rights organizations, Faith-based
Organizations; Women’s led organizations, youth Political Forums, and Arts
and Policy Makers from South Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and
Ethiopia.
CSOs as whole welcomed the IGAD initiative, describing it as
a contributor to peace building initiatives among the member states, with the
potential of creating conditions for greater regional stability. They further
stressed that issues of justice, Gender mainstreaming, the role of women and youth
in peace building and participatory democracy should be given priority in the
implementation of the peace building mechanisms.
CSO representatives further confirmed their readiness to
collaborate with IGAD and other regional stakeholders in advocating for peace especially
those relating to commitments linked to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV),
Youth inclusion and women participation, protecting people from violence,
providing services, facilitating mediations, monitoring human rights abuses,
and advocating for an end to wars or authoritarian rule.
It was further recommended that, without sacrificing their
independence, CSOs should endeavor to develop strategic alliances and
partnerships with governments to impact public policy and decision-making. Joy
for Children-Uganda is an example of organization that has established
productive relations with government of Uganda through working with Ministry of
Gender, labor and social development and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for
Children, but has been careful to not compromise the institutional
independence.
