Regional Stakeholders' Capacity Building on Early Warning and Human Rights
Regional stakeholders from East, Central, Southern, and West Africa trained on including human rights-based approach in Early Warning systems for conflict prevention. These trainings integrate human-rights-based approaches into conflict analysis and prevention, ensuring that early warning systems are fair, effective, and people-centred.
In close collaboration with the African Union Commission’s Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security and other partners, the AU-German project “Support to the African Union on Peace, Security and Governance (AUPSG)” supported four regional capacity-building workshops on integrating human rights-based approach in early warning. These trainings are part of broader efforts to implement the AU Strategic Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human and Peoples’ Rights (2024–2026), which declared the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade in Africa (2016–2026).
One of these workshops, the Central Africa regional training, was held in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in Bujumbura, Burundi, from December 9 to 12, 2025. The workshop was officially opened by Brigadier General Jimmy Hatungimana, representing Honourable Leonidas Ndaruzaniye, Minister of the Interior, Community Development, and Public Security of Burundi.
“The workshop offers a valuable opportunity to work together to strengthen Central Africa's collective capacity to anticipate, prevent, and transform conflicts and build a robust, coherent prevention architecture centered on human dignity.”
Eleven Central African countries came together with ECCAS, national human rights institutions and local civil society organisations for deep, interactive sessions. During the sessions, participants worked together to establish a shared regional framework that is inclusive, bringing together government officials, civil society, peace actors, AU human rights organs, and international development partners. The framework is context-sensitive, ensuring that human-rights-based approaches are systematically integrated into early warning and conflict analysis, particularly to address the root causes of conflict. It is also sustainable, strengthening institutional peacebuilding mechanisms through collectively owned approaches, and reflecting a strong commitment to supporting the African Union and regional organisations in advancing peace, security, and good governance across the continent.
The workshops have already produced significant results. Stakeholders in Central Africa are now better equipped to apply conflict analysis and human-rights-based approaches in early warning and conflict prevention at both national and regional levels. Participants have gained a deeper understanding of the link between human rights and conflict prevention, and human-rights-based approaches are now more firmly integrated into data collection, analysis, and reporting within national and regional early warning frameworks. The training has also improved coordination between the AU, ECCAS, national human rights institutions, and civil society organisations, while promoting gender-responsive and inclusive approaches in conflict prevention mechanisms.
In her closing remarks during the workshop in Bujumbura, Alida Kaneza from GIZ reminded everyone that upholding human rights and putting early warning systems into practice isn’t just a technical task; it’s a core commitment to building a peaceful, just, and resilient Central Africa, contributing to the Africa We Want.
