The African Diaspora in the AU

The Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund would like to thank the AU Monitor for providing a platform for our organisation and the African people of the U.S to share our assessment of the performance of the African Union in terms of their outreach, support and contribution of the African Diaspora in the building of a Union Government.

The mission of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) is to win the right of return with equity and justice for all those displaced as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by building a multi-national mass movement, and to ensure that the civil and human rights of all New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents are respected and implemented throughout the United States.

We would like to begin by noting that while the people in the Gulf Coast and Mississipi trace our roots and identify with Africa, very little, if anything, is known of the African Union and the proposed Union Government. We would therefore like to recommend that more information be published and circulated among the African Diaspora on these institutions and initiatives so that a constructive dialogue and mutual support be realized.

The Diaspora Initiative of the African Union outlined “what the Diaspora may expect” from the AU including “moral and political support of Diaspora initiatives in their respective regions”. Since the establishment of the Diaspora Initiative there have indeed been several occasions where such support of African Diaspora communities has been soarly needed. The 2005 hurricanes of Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast of Mississipi and Louisiana saw gross violations of human and peoples’ rights against African peoples perpetrated by the U.S government, including lack of protection, forced displacement, arbitrary arrest and extrajudicial killing. Only the governments of Cuba and Venezuela denounced the US government for these violations and condemned the subsequent ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. The African Union and its member States were silent in the face of this tragedy that affected hundreds of thousands of Africans.

In response to the widespread and systematic violations of human rights, PHRF convened a Tribunal of 16 esteemed jurists from nine countries, including Algeria, Brazil, France, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela, and the United States, between August 29 and September 2, 2007 to hear testimony by experts and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After considering the testimony and evidence, the jurists issued preliminary findings that the US government committed crimes against humanity by its failure to maintain functional levees that should have protected the City of New Orleans from flooding. In addition, the jurists found the federal government guilty of violating the human rights: to life, human dignity and recognition of persons; to be free from racial discrimination, especially at the hands of law enforcement personnel and vigilantes; the right to return, to resettlement and reintegration of internally displaced people; to be free from degrading treatment and punishment; right to freedom of movement; to adequate housing; to education; to vote and participate in governance; to fair trial, liberty and security of persons and right to equal protection under law. All these violations had a disproportionate devastating impact with respect to people of African descent and women. We urge the African Union to consider supporting the appeals of African survivors for the right to return and remedy for the violations committed against them.

We hope that the AU Audit Review panel will investigate how the AU has delivered on its promises to the Diaspora communities beyond the rhetoric of our inclusion as the “sixth region” and how, in the future, we may use the protection mechanisms, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as a platform for promoting and protecting the rights of Africans everywhere. In particular, we hope that moving forward the AU will recognise in word and in actions that “since the twenty two million of us were originally Africans, who are now in America not by choice but only by a cruel accident in our history, we strongly believe that African problems are our problems and our problems are African problems” (Malcolm X at the OAU summit, 1964)

Sincerely,
Kali Akuno
Executive Director, Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund

1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215
Email: phrfoc at gmail.com

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