LIBERIA IS ENJOYING the fruits of peace, security and democracy, the outcome of the Comprehensive Accra Peace Accord. The post-August 2003 Accra success story reechoes the need for conflict detection and response. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee Maxwell Saah Kemayah, and his bill for the establishment of the National Center for the Coordination of Response Mechanism (NCCRM) are right on course.
THE IMPORTANCE OF the bill cannot be overemphasized. Minister Kemayah said Liberia, as a post-conflict nation, has been affected by conflicts and socio-political crises, the causes of which were not detected or identified at the appropriate time to ensure timely prevention.
ACCORDING TO MINISTER Kemayah, “The passage of the bill will establish the center and enable it to provide Liberia and the region with appropriate tools and mechanism to bridge the gap between alert and response.
“THE ENACTMENT OF the bill into law gives the center legal status and enhances its ability to source funding through budgetary appropriations by the Legislature,” Minister Kemayah stated.
“IT WILL ALSO ensure the domestication of Article (51) of the Communique adopted by Heads of State and Government during the 45th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS, held in Accra on July 14, 2014, which provides for the strategic framework for the establishment of the National Early Warning Response Mechanism,” Ambassador Kemayah disclosed.
ON MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021 at the public hearing on the bill to establish NCCRM, Minister Kemayah said Liberia is a signatory to the treaty establishing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and that Chapter IV of the 1999 ECOWAS protocol (mechanism for conflict prevention, management, resolution, peacekeeping and security) provides the framework for the establishment of a sub-regional peace and security system on early warning.
MINISTER KEMAYAH EXPLAINED that Articles 8 and 9 of the 2010 Monrovia Declaration distinctly state that ECOWAS should enhance the capacity of member states to manage and resolve local and low-intensity conflicts by developing national mechanisms to reinforce the existing peace and security architecture.