UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION, REINTEGRATION

TO CONVENE IN KINSHASA, 12 - 14 JUNE

NEW YORK, 17 May (Office of the Special Adviser on Africa ) -- African practitioners and beneficiaries of programmes for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants will meet in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 12-14 June.

Coming from some 20 African countries, they will take up the challenges of improving one of the most critical aspects of post-war recovery -- disarming ex-fighters and ensuring their successful reintegration into civilian life.

While wars in many African countries have ended in recent years, sustainable peace has sometimes been elusive, and some slip back into conflict.  The participants will draw on the lessons of past and current disarmament, demobilization and reintegration operations in Africa, to highlight ways to make disarmament and reintegration strategies more effective, build African ownership of such programmes and encourage the international community to render more constructive support.

The conference is being co-organized by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and President Joseph Kabila is expected to address its opening session.  It will be one of the first major international events to be held in the country following presidential and legislative elections last year.  While the conference will be pan-African in scope, its organization in Kinshasa reflects the importance that the United Nations and the broader international community attach to the country’s post-war reconstruction and to its central place in efforts to achieve peace in the wider Great Lakes and Central African regions.  The other co-organizer is the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa.

In recent years, there have been numerous conferences, seminars and workshops devoted to assessing and strengthening disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes.  In December 2006, the United Nations launched its Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards to help improve the design of such operations in a more systematic fashion.  But the focus of the Kinshasa conference, like a similar pan-African disarmament, demobilization and reintegration conference organized by the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa in Sierra Leone in June 2005, is specifically on Africa.  It will emphasize the views and recommendations of African practitioners, with the aim of enhancing capacity-building and networking among them.

The African stakeholders going to Kinshasa will include Government officials; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration beneficiaries; members of national armed forces and former insurgent factions; parties to peace accords; and representatives of host communities and civil society organizations.  They will share their national experiences and also discuss a number of selected thematic issues that require greater attention, such as child soldiers and children in armed conflict; the links between disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and transitional justice and security sector reform; problems related to the presence of combatants from other countries; and the need to build public-private partnerships to create jobs and improve the prospects for the long-term reintegration of ex-combatants.

For further information, contact Mieko Ikegame, Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, New York, tel: +1 212 963 1937, fax: +1 212 963 3892, e-mail: ikegame@un.org; or Kemal Saiki, United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), tel: +243 81 890 6024 or +243 81 890 7506, e-mail: saiki@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record