Zoom registration link: https://tinyurl.com/KAIPTC-TheGambia-JUN2021
Preventing atrocity crimes: KAIPTC partners government of Denmark to deliberate on policy measures
Accra, 11th June: Fifteen years after the adoption of the UN Secretary-General’s report on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) which was intended to create enabling spaces and effective national mechanisms for atrocity prevention, it is widely perceived that the implementation of the norm has been haphazard at best if not deficient.
Following a four-country study that revealed a general lack of urgency in the implementation of R2P at the state level, KAIPTC and the Danish Government are convening a regional conference to provide the platform for practitioners to discuss critical policy issues affecting atrocity prevention efforts in West Africa.
The two-day regional conference, which will be held at the Senegambia Hotel in Gambia from 21st-22nd June 2021, will among others deliberate on national experiences on best practices in atrocity prevention whiles providing a platform for building a community of practice to promote the implementation of the R2P norm.
The West African region has in recent years witnessed alarming atrocity crimes caused by the general lack of political will to address the structural weakness and proximate causes leading to violent identity-based conflicts, violent extremism, sexual exploitation and abuse and a host of other human rights violations.
A total of forty-five (45) participants selected from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and the Gambia, comprising of experienced practitioners and policy level officials from ECOWAS; national human rights commissions; state security agencies; civil society organizations, and other international organizations will partake in the regional conference.
It is expected that the conference would afford facilitators and participants an opportunity to highlight the real challenges impeding atrocity prevention and how states could leverage existing resources to adopt effective mechanisms for atrocity prevention.
The Danish Government is supporting the KAIPTC to implement strategic projects in areas such as: Women Peace and Security (WPS), Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and Conflict Prevention. The project is on the theme: “Promoting Peace and Security in West Africa”. The activities to be conducted as part of the project comprise research, training, and awareness creation, with the research findings feeding into training courses, policy dialogues, and other events for stakeholder representatives at all levels (from UN General Assembly participants and ECOWAS and AU officials to community-level leaders).
For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233302-718200 ext 1104/1203 or +233 550 303030. You can find the KAIPTC on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at: @Kaiptcgh and on Instagram at: @kaiptc. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: www.kaiptc.org
About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre:
The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana’s five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.
The Centre delivers training courses in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally recognized institution and has to date trained and tutored over 25,207 participants and students since its inception.
KAIPTC is a gender-sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and postgraduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.