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PREAMBLE
WE, THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE MEMBER STATES OF THE
ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS);
MINDFUL OF the ECOWAS Treaty signed in Cotonou on 24 July 1993, notably its Article
58;
MINDFUL OF the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention,
Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security signed in Lome on 10 December
1999;
CONSIDERING all the issues enumerated or reaffirmed in the preamble to the Protocol
of 10 December 1999 referred to above;
MINDFUL OF the principles set out in the OAU Solemn Declaration on Security,
Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa adopted in Abuja on 8 and 9 May
2000 and the Decision AHG. DEC 142 (XXV) on the framework for OAU’s reaction to
unconstitutional change of government, adopted in Algiers in July 1999;
CONSIDERING the Harare Declaration adopted by the Commonwealth on 20 October
1991 and the Bamako Declaration adopted by the member countries of the
Francophonie on 3 November 2000;
CONSIDERING also the Cotonou Declaration adopted on 6 December 2000 at the end of
the 4th international conference on new or restored democracies;
RECALLING that women’s rights have been recognised and guaranteed in all
international human rights instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women;