ECOWAS Commission Commemorates World Peace Day, Launches ECFP Documentary on Peacebuilding Strides

The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will be commemorating World Peace Day (WPD) in Abuja on the 21^st of September, 2022.

The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations in 1981 and represents a symbolic globally shared date for humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.

And as 2022 marks the 14^th year anniversary of adoption of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF), the WPD offers a remarkable opportunity to reflect on ECOWAS’ conflict prevention efforts- past, present and future.

To this end, the ECPF Documentary on the peacebuilding and conflict resolution strides would be symbolically launched during the WPD commemoration.

ECOWAS has been a pivot to the pursuit of peace and security in the region, with its Authority of Heads of States and Governments adopting legal and normative instruments to mitigate security concerns and deepen democratic culture and practice while addressing deep-seated structural causes of conflict in the region. The ECPF, adopted in 2008 is about the most recent of these instruments.

The theme of this year’s commemoration: End Racism. Build peace. But at the regional level, the ECOWAS Commission takes special interest at this time on the need to end all forms of discrimination, communal strife, trans-border crime, ethnicity and hate speech.

As part of building a culture of peace and virtue of peace, the ECOWAS Commission joins the United Nations to invite citizens of West Africa and our partners to mark this International Peace Day, to put to an end to xenophobia and related discriminations and intolerance in all societies as part of the collective commitment to living in harmony with one another.

The commemoration will also rekindle the desire of peace and security stakeholders to highlight lessons learnt from the ECOWAS interventions in its Member States.

Participants at the event are drawn from ECOWAS Institutions, as well as key regional peace and security actors, the development partners, the diplomatic community and key peacebuilding agencies, among others.