South Sudanese entity organizes peace symposium

December 10, 2016 (JUBA) -The Initiative for Peace Communication Association (IPCA) organized a peace and human rights symposium, which brought together South Sudanese communities in the young nation on Sunday.

IPCA’s executive director, Joseph Edward, said the event sought to create opportunity for South Sudanese by imploring cultural diversities and sport as a tool for healing and developing their ability to view each other as important and shun ethnic groups’ ideologies.

The event, supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was part of a nationwide peace and reconciliation campaign among divided South Sudanese communities to engage them in dialogues, singing, cultural performances and sports.

“This festival seeks to bring healing and wholeness to communities suffering from ethnic conflict, hatred and appeals to many divided societies and amplify the need for peace by bringing together youth, women, men, girls and boys from around the nation to speak out for peace and share information about peace building, healing, reconciliation and reconstruction,” said Edward.

Founded in 2012, IPCA is a youth wing-led nonprofit, non-governmental entity fully registered under South Sudan Ministry of Justice and South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.

The organisation seeks to foster interaction and collaboration among authorities, human rights activists and other sectors of the society on issues of peace, human rights, democracy, freedom of expression, rights to information and defend communicators against control that could undermine freedom of expression, among others.

(ST)