A meeting on the draft Statute of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise was organized by The ECOWAS Directorate of Mediation and Facilitation in a move to reposition the ECOWAS Council of the Wise organised a two day meeting of Experts from Member States in Abuja, Nigeria from the 4th to 5^th May, 2016 with support from the German International Development Agency (GIZ) to draft a new statue.

The ECOWAS Council of the Wise, as defined by Article 20 of the 1999 Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security, otherwise known as the Mechanism, is one of the mediation organs of the ECOWAS Commission. The Council of the Wise was operationalized following the adoption of the Mechanism with the appointment of Members of the Council by the President of the Commission, who would, on behalf of the President of the Commission, use their good offices and experience to play the role of mediators, conciliators and facilitators for the purposes of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution in the region.

Members of the Council of the Wise have over the years, been engaged in various preventive diplomacy capacities such as  Special Envoys, Mediators, Heads and members of pre-electoral facts finding and election observation missions among other assignments.

In line with the new impetus to reposition the Council of the Wise, a draft Statute detailing the mandate, function and administrative framework to guide the work of the Council was developed by the ECOWAS Directorate of Mediation and Facilitation which was debated during the meeting in Abuja.

Mrs. Halima Ahmed, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security represented by Mrs. Florence Iheme, Ag. Director, Mediation and Facilitation in her welcome remarks welcomed participants and commended them for accepting to be part of the workshop. She also underlined the major role played by the Council of the Wise in maintaining peace and stability in the ECOWAS region.

After exhaustive deliberations, inputs, comments and observations during the two-day session, the necessary amendments were made to the draft Statute which was adopted at the end of the meeting.