WANEP-Togo NNC on the TJR Commission

The WANEP –Togo National Network Coordinator has been appointed as a member of the Togo Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

In a Presidential Decree read on national TV in Togo on Wednesday, May 27^th, 2009, Mrs Claudine Yawavi Lomawu Ahianyo-Kpondzo, the National Network Coordinator of WANEP-Togo, was appointed a member of the ‘Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission’ (TJC) of Togo. The WANEP Coordinator was appointed on the commission on behalf of Civil Society Organisations in Togo. The commission will be officially launched on Friday May 29^th, 2009 in the Togolese capital, Lomé.

With support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the TJR commission was set up in the aftermath of national consultations which started on April 15^th, 2008 in which WANEP-Togo played an active role.

The commission has the responsibility of unearthing political violence in Togo from 1959, pre-independence, up to 2005. As a matter of recall, Togo experienced political violence in the 2005 Presidential elections that left about 500 people dead and thousands more injured, according to a UN report.

This is the second high level governmental assignment of a WANEP Coordinator, after Vapilah Tornorlah, the former National Network Coordinator of WANEP-Liberia was appointed a Deputy Minister for Health in the current Liberian government, in recognition of WANEP’s contribution, to peace, security and development in West Africa.