The National Peace Council (NPC) has trained a diverse group of community members including traditional and religious leaders, women, youth, and local government actors on peace-building through human rights in Dorimon in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region.
The two-day training session, held from 4th – 5th September 2024, brought together 40 participants from Dorimon, Kpilla, and Olli communities in the Wa West District to explore the critical link between human rights and social cohesion.
The training, facilitated by Dr Patrick Osei Kuffour, a Peace and Security lecturer from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), formed part of the UN Peace Building Project funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund through UNDP and UNFPA and being implemented by the NPC.
Through a series of immersive activities, participants were engaged in discussions and exercises that highlighted the impact of human rights violations on peace and harmony at the community level and how these violations could disrupt social harmony and fuel conflicts.
Mr. Mohammed Fawaz, a Conflict Resolution and Management professional with the NPC, speaking at the workshop, said the training was aimed at opening up channels of communication between the local government actors and the community for the resolution of community development issues.
He added that the training intended to restore the confidence of the community in the resolve of the local government actors to deal with community issues and also to help “bridge the gap between the governed and those doing the governing.”
He, thus, said it was to empower the community leaders with practical knowledge and skills to identify and address issues that widen this gap within their communities.
“And we want to inspire the spirit of solutions being produced by the people or the victims who are being affected by the said problems within the communities to inspire a sense of communal ownership of the solutions that are brought about and implemented in the near future.
“This is to boost the chances of sustainability of the said solutions that are being implemented; if they themselves come up with the solutions and they understand how it affects them and why they brought them into place, they can support the solution survival for a longer period of time,” he said.
Mr Fawaz added that the training was also to foster tolerance and unity ahead of the 2024 elections through “reaching an understanding and finding common grounds” among the different groups of people including men, women, young people, herders, and other minority groups who are residing within the communities.
“If these common grounds can be exploited to our advantage, at the very least, it will reduce the tendency of conflicts and possible tensions rising, especially during a high-tensed period such as the elections period of Ghana,” he stated.
He urged the participants to be change agents and ambassadors of peace as they returned to their various communities as he noted that “they carried the hopes and dreams and aspirations of their people” as leaders.
The community leaders identified among others, widowhood rites, forced marriages, inheritance rights, and cultural restrictions on leadership as some of the human rights concerns and negative gender norms that affected the development of their communities.
“When your husband dies, you’re forced to remarry in the same family and if you do not agree, you’re barred from marrying one else in the community. And when your husband passes on, all the fruits of your toil with him [properties] are shared among only his relatives and the woman and the children, if they are young, receive no penny. The woman is left to struggle with raising the children singlehandedly,” Madam Adia Ahmed, a participant from Dorimon, said.
Mr Dassah Ephraim, a participant and Assembly Member for Eggu Electoral Area, said the training brought to light the bane of development in the area and has set the grounds for wider sensitization towards a revision of some of those norms within the communities.
The NPC held similar training on the 2nd and 3rd of September 2024 in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region which drew participants from Fielmuo, Jeffisi, and Zini communities.
The UN Peace Building project is aimed at enhancing social cohesion and social contract through the empowerment of women and youth in three northern regions of Ghana.
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