Humanitarian issues key to restoring peace, UN official says

Lasting solutions are needed for the humanitarian problems of gender-based violence, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), a senior United Nations (UN) official said on Tuesday.

This would help restore peace and stability to the region, Ibrahima Fall, the Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, said in Nairobi, Kenya, at the opening of a three-day regional conference on peace and security.

The meeting is to consider for adoption a draft model on the prevention and suppression of sexual violence against women and children, and another on the property rights of returning IDPs and refugees.

A regional meeting held in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui, in February developed the protocols to be adopted at the national level and implemented regionally.

"We should aim at formulating appropriate protocols to be adopted by relevant ministries within the countries in the region," Fall said. "However, the legislation should be made applicable to the situation in each country."

He said it was imperative for countries to adapt the protocol for regional conformity, as these would "influence the history of the region and the continent in general".

Fall said there was a need to promote the respect of human rights and so curb the impunity that continued to contribute to regional instability.

Jeanine Cooper, humanitarian affairs officer with the Regional Support Office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Nairobi, Kenya

A humanitarian affairs officer with the Regional Support Office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jeanine Cooper, said the Great Lakes was moving towards economic prosperity although there were reports of daily violence in some areas.

"Rape is also an issue of great concern in the Great Lakes region, which is in post-conflict transition," she said.

If unchecked, she said, violence could prevent countries from achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The goals include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality and combating HIV/Aids by 2015. They were adopted by 189 nations at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

With reference to the draft legislation to protect the property rights of returnees, Cooper said there was need to make returns as painless as possible. If accepted, the draft legislation would act as a template to promote the debate at national level, she added.

According to Ambassador Sophie Kalinde of the joint UN and African Union Secretariat, this would guarantee the future of women and children from unnecessary misery, especially in conflict situations.

Delegates from Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia are attending the conference.

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