Snowe in Stockholm for Major Session on Dialogue, Mediation

MONROVIA – Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvine Snowe is in Stockholm, Sweden, participating in a United Nations and Folke Bernadotte Academy facilitated course on Dialogue and Mediation from Sunday May 18 to 24, 2025.
Senator Snowe, who is Chairman of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Parliament’s Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is representing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament.
The course is aimed at strengthening the capacity of participants to effectively engage in conflict prevention and conflict resolution through the facilitation of dialogue and mediation processes.
According to a dispatch, the study is expected to enhance conceptual and practical understanding of ways to effectively facilitate dialogue and mediation processes based on UN principles and values, mediation fundamentals and normative approaches, including how dialogue and mediation can contribute to sustainable peace, and provide participants with an opportunity to meet and exchange with peers and expert peace practitioners and jointly reflect on current approaches and practices in facilitating dialogue and mediation processes.
The course is designed to enhance the participants’ practical skills in facilitating and designing dialogue and mediation processes based on principles and methods for inclusion, trust-building, mindful communication and others.
In a telephone interview with Chairman Snowe Jr., he noted that the online course earlier leading to the in-person course has been very good and impressive, and they share experiences where he was able to share what he has gathered from the ECOWAS region – the diplomacy approach that was launched in Sierra Leone and Liberia in conflict resolution.
The Bomi senator said: “Now, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have left the sub-regional bloc, we spoke of it; we shared that experience; the political impasse in the Gambia and the political situation in Guinea Bissau; shared experience through long sessions and the different situations that the various regions face – what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and all those experiences were shared.”
Senator Snowe also affirmed that the experience gained would be shared with his colleagues on the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliament and he has raised the issue already with the organization in one of their online sessions for them to sponsor a small team to Abuja – Nigeria where they could have some session.
“I would be coming back with materials that would be to the benefit of the Committee and have knowledge sharing with members of the Committee”, he noted.
Chairman of the Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) of the Community Parliament, Sen. Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. has praised Guinea’s military government for announcing plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2025.
He was however quick to point out in an interview that, the devil is in the details. “We are still looking out that it would be an election that would be free, fair and transparent and would be inclusive of all the political actors. But so far it is just a news of returning to constitutional rule and its welcoming and I commend the military junta in Guinea for taking the bold step to return the country to constitutional rule”
The move comes after the country missed its initial deadline for a return to civilian administration on December 31, 2024.
Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah stated that everything is being done to ensure the elections take place at the end of the year. “We haven’t set a date, but everything is being done to make sure it happens at the end of the year, in December” – Bah said in a telephone interview with AFP.
Meanwhile, on the three Sahel states, he indicated if they return to constitutional rule and the constitutional leader believes they should return, “I am sure ECOWAS would excise that power to ensure that it happens because we are together as a people and as a Community.”

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