Published: September 23, 2026
MONROVIA – Former Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah Sr. called on Liberia and the international community to make dialogue, impartial justice and credible institutions the foundation of lasting peace, delivering the special keynote address at the First International Peace Summit 2026 on Monday.
Amb. Kemayah was among the international figures selected to address the summit, which was held online to commemorate the International Day of Peace. The International Human Rights Commission, whose world chairman is Ambassador Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan, organized the gathering and listed former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and former Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim among the leaders sharing the platform.
Drawing on his years as Liberia’s chief diplomat and dean of the cabinet, Amb. Kemayah told diplomats, government officials and civil society representatives that lasting peace rests on three pillars: credible diplomacy, justice under the rule of law and institutions people can trust.
“It is always less costly to prevent a conflict than to resolve one, after it begins,” he said. “Dialogue is not capitulation. Negotiation is not surrender. Diplomacy is not weakness.”
He urged governments and regional bodies to invest in early warning systems, standing mediation teams and confidential channels between governments and political parties, so that tensions are addressed before they turn into crises. “Do not wait for the fire before building the fire brigade,” he said.
He described courts as institutions of peace that give societies an orderly alternative to confrontation. “Disputes can be transferred from the streets to the courtrooms,” he said, calling support for the judiciary “an investment in national stability.”
On justice, Amb. Kemayah said no one should be above the law and no one should be denied its protection. “A functioning democracy must therefore reject two extremes: impunity on one side and political persecution on the other,” he said.
Turning to Liberia, he reminded participants of the country’s 14 years of civil conflict and more than two decades of rebuilding. “We have paid too high a price for peace to gamble with it again,” he said, urging leaders to lower the political temperature and treat opponents as partners in the constitutional order rather than enemies of the state.
Amb. Kemayah also challenged international institutions to apply international law consistently, so that smaller and developing states can trust that the rules protect them as fully as they protect powerful nations.
He said, “Let us choose dialogue before, and over confrontation. Let us choose diplomacy before, and over escalation. Let us choose justice over vengeance.”
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