I bring you greetings from the youth of Liberia, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Cllr. Jamesetta Howard, and the President of Liberia, Her Excellency Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the entire government and people of Liberia, especially the youth of Liberia.

I am overwhelmed to be present at this very important global gathering after a long struggle with Canadian Immigration Official relative to getting a visa just to come to Canada to discuss Peace.

We are all united in our conviction that violent conflicts in most parts of the world, especially in Africa are not only an economic crisis but also a human, legal, political and social crisis. They are crises of unprecedented and unacceptable proportions manifested not only in the declines in economic indicators and trends but tragically and glaringly in the suffering, hardship and impoverishment of the vast majority of the population, especially the young people.

Let me affirm that nations cannot be built and will not achieve stability and peace without the popular support and full participation of its youth population. The youth are often used as physical perpetrators of violence. Those who initiate violence because of political or other reasons, use the youth as instruments of violence. Economic conditions cannot improve without the full, effective and positive contribution of the youth of any community, because they are the reservoir for a country's human resource capacity.

Therefore, I maintain that at the heart of every peace initiative must lie the ultimate and overriding goal of a youth-centered approach. To achieve these objectives will require that peace initiatives focus primarily on the youth population. The design and development of youth programs and activity must be prioritized.

In the case of Liberia, the neglect of the youth population has yielded a negative result, which we are forced to reckon with as a nation. Sixty-two percent of Liberia’s national population are young people between the ages of 15 to 28 years. Close to 50% were active participants in the 14 years of brutal war.

We believe that, in the absence of appropriate and well-designed peace building and conflict management programs -- which should target the youth in order to transform their orientation, since indeed they have been used over the years as agents of destruction -- all development initiatives by government and her international partners will prove fruitless.

I can assure you that the government of Liberia will support all efforts to establish a department or ministry of Peace in our country, especially after such a devastating civil war, which claimed the lives of over 400,000 persons, mainly women and children. Now, my motivation to do peace work is that PEACE IS POSSIBLE. Peace in the Liberian context is not just the silence of the GUN. I don’t know your definition of peace in your context, but for us peace is the fight for poverty reduction: access to basic public utility services (like electricity, water, etc.), access to education, a good health delivery system, availability of food, etc.

The department or ministry of peace is very essential in the maintenance of peace and will serve as a national conflict management system or approach. It will serve as an early warning system to alert government of conflicts which have the potential to degenerate into violence. Surely, a ministry or department of peace is needed in our governance system because it will also promote good governance, peace and stability. One major challenge will be the neutrality and funding of this important institution.

As I conclude, let me reaffirm our support for this great vision. May God bless the work of our hands.

* Timothy Al Paulus is Assistant Minister for Youth Services in the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Liberia.