The villages of Gankro and Ampounou in Yezimala Sub Prefecture, 446 km east of Abidjan made a commitment to preserve peace and fight against gender-based violence during a recent stop-over of the mobile grassroots sensitization team of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI).



On 1 December 2014, some 80 people attended a meeting organised by the UN team dubbed ONUCI-Tour which discussed a variety of issues with the people including the protection of the civilian population, peaceful cohabitation and the fight against violence done to women and children.



While in Ampounou, Mr. Djibo Hamadou of UNOCI's Human Rights division stressed that sexual violence and rape are considered a crime by Ivorian law and should not under any circumstances be settled out of court in order not to promote the impunity of perpetrators.



Brigitte Becho of the Legal Clinic said victims of sexual violence and related crimes should contact the Clinic for counseling and legal assistance in bringing perpetrators to justice.



In the village of Gankro, a big crowd came out for the meeting on 25 November to listen to members of the ONUCI-Tour team explain the fundamentals of human rights including equality, non-discrimination and participation, respect of the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged, the handicapped, women and children.



A staff of the Civil Affairs section, Timothe Munyabwito spoke on the peaceful resolution of conflicts, dialogue as a means of resolving conflicts between communities and the prevention of violence particularly during an election period.



Philemon Balolebwami of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) division spoke of the opportunities offered by UNOCI to ex-combatants who hand in their weapons to be reintegrated into normal civilian life. He called on those in possession of arms to hand them over and to join the reintegration programme of DDR.