Youth and Peace Education (YPE)

 The Justice Lens Program (JLP)

Conflicts often arise because of human rights violations.  Human rights violations are both symptoms and causes of violent conflicts.  Consequently, peacebuilding can only be effective in the long-term if it takes human rights and justice concerns into account.  JLP seeks to develop a synergy between the fields of human rights and peacebuilding. It offers a cooperative platform for human rights and peacebuilding organizations and practitioners to address regional challenges on peace issues, development, democracy, and human rights. Through intensive training in human rights mechanisms, JLP builds the capacity of WANEP network members, CSOs and ECOWAS zonal bureau heads to strengthen the regional early warning system.  

Objectives:

• To enhance a platform of collaboration between human rights and peacebuilding actors

• Build the capacity of WANEP’s network member organizations in the rights-based approach to peacebuilding

• Mainstream human rights approach into the regional Early Warning and conflict prevention mechanism

• Promote restorative justice system at the community level

• Integrate the most applicable qualities of traditional justice system into the mainstream

In the next years, WANEP plans to develop a rights-based framework to peacebuilding; integrate human rights into all its programming; build the capacity of all its networks in human rights; produce a manual on the rights-based approach to peacebuilding; work closely with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and other human rights institutions in Africa to bring peacebuilding on their agenda.

Expected Outcomes

• Platform between Human Rights and Peacebuilding Practitioners

• Examples of restorative justice settlements

• Human rights effectively mainstreamed in conflict prevention