CIVIL SOCIETY LAUNCH THE ‘LET PEACE PREVAIL’ CAMPAIGN 2016
In a bid to consolidate and work better to advocate for peace during the 2016 Elections, Civil Society organizations under the auspices of the Uganda National NGO Forum launched the ‘Let Peace Prevail’ campaign on the 4th February 2016 at Royal Suites Hotel Bugolobi. This was at the NGO leaders’ scenario building meeting on the 2016 General elections.
The campaign is aimed at consolidating all the ongoing peace initiatives by various individuals and organizations in a bid to ensure that peace prevails before, during and after elections. Its objectives are: To quickly spread citizen-led political dialogue and peace actions across the country; work with leaders and citizens at all levels to support a message of peace and tolerance in elections; and to avert any instances of violence during the election period.
In their umbrella network, Citizens Election Observation Network (CEON), a consortium of 18 CSO member organizations, Civil Society Leaders present called upon every individual and organizations to ensure that they work towards a peaceful electoral process through various programs and activities at both national and local levels if there must be meaningful prevalence of peace.
There are several ongoing Civil society Organizations’ initiatives on peace such as the Women Situation Room, the youths’ I pledge peace Campaign, the financial monitoring of the campaigns by ACFIM, the TOPOWA campaign, among others have contributed to both civic education and messaging to mobilize citizens to stand up for peace, regardless of their affiliations. The civil society fraternity pledged to further continue with these initiatives and accelerate them to ensure that more citizens are aware of their duty to peace but also contribute to maintaining peace.
CSOs present agreed to engage the relevant stakeholders such as the Police, UPDF , Political leaders among others on ensuring that peace prevails in the country during the electoral process and also pledged to continue to foster and maintain the campaign for the love of country.
