In 2000, the United Nations Security Council, through Resolutions 1291 and 1304, called for an international conference on peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes Region. In the same year, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region was jointly established by the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union in Nairobi (Kenya).

In November 2004, the eleven heads of state and government of the member states unanimously adopted the Declaration on Peace, Security and Development in the Great Lakes Region of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Dar-es-Salaam Declaration reflects the political will of the Heads of State and Government of the member countries of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region to tackle the root causes of conflicts and obstacles to development in an approach regional and innovative.

Two years after the adoption of the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration, the Heads of State and Government met in Nairobi to sign the Covenant on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region.

In 2008 the pact includes the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration, as well as action programmes and protocols. The Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region was signed on December 15, 2006 by the Heads of State and Government of the Member Countries of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. implemented on June 21, 2008.

Similarly, a Forum of Parliaments of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-CIRGL) was established in Kigali, Rwanda at the meeting held on 4 December 2008. At its Plenary Assembly in Khartoum, Sudan in 2010, the Forum decided to establish its headquarters in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.