Summary Note on the AU Summit

Center for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union (CCP-AU)—The 10th Ordinary Summit largely focused on industrial development in Africa, the performance audit of the African Union, Union Government, elections of the AU Chairperson and the entire Commission as well as conflict in Kenya, Chad, Comoros and Somalia.

This Summit was remarkable in many ways as it generated huge public and institutional interest from Ethiopian civil society and Sudanese women’s organisations. The Summit was also disappointing in that the Commission provided no real assistance for accreditation for most of the CSOs.

KEY DECISIONS OF THE SUMMIT

Election at the African Union and the AU Commission: Chair Person of the AU: H.E President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania; Chair Person of the AU Commission: H.E. Jean Ping (Gabon); Deputy Chair Person of the AU Commission: Mr. Erastus Mwencha (Kenya) and Commissioners: Peace and Security: Mr. Ramtane Lamamra (Algeria), Political Affairs: Mrs. Julia Dolly Joiner (Gambia), Infrastructure and Energy: Mrs. Elham Mahmood Ahmed Ibrahim (Egypt), Social Affairs: Advocate. Bience Philomina Gawanas (Namibia), Human Resources, Science and Technology: Mr. Jean Pierre O. Ezin (Benin), Trade and Industry: Mrs. Elizabeth Tankeu (Cameroon), Economic Affairs: Dr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba (Malawi) and Rural Economy and Agriculture: To be elected in April 2008

The Audit and Union Government: Executive Council could not reach a general consensus on the Audit Report due to time constraints. The Council will meet in April on a special session to take decision on the reform of the Commission. The Assembly decided to refer the issue of the Union Government to the existing committee of ten now elevated to the level of Heads of states which has expanded to include the immediate past Chairperson of the Union with the same TOR as Accra .

Peace and Security Council: 10 new members elected. They are Burundi and Chad: (Central Africa) Rwanda and Uganda: (Eastern Africa), Tunisia: (North Africa), Swaziland and Zambia: (Southern Africa), Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali: (West Africa). From 1st April 2008, the PSC will then be composed by the following 15 members: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Tunisia, Zambia.

Conflict in Somalia and Chad: Summit issued a declaration calling member states to urgently contribute more troops in Somalia and stressed the need for the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia that will take over AMISOM. Two Heads of State (DRC and Libya) have been charged to mediate between Chad Government and rebels.

Situation of Kenya: The Assembly condemned the gross violations of Human Rights that occurred in the past weeks and stresses the need for all those involved in these violations to be held accountable. Summit also called on all parties to refrain form acts of violence and come up with peaceful solutions through dialogue.

Situation in the Comoros: The Summit regretted that all efforts so far deployed to resolve the crisis in Comoros have not yielded the expected outcome nevertheless requests all Member states capable to provide the necessary support to Comorian Government and to put an end to the crisis. The Summit also appealed Member states to provide the necessary support to strengthen African Union Electoral and Security Assistance Mission (MAES) and moreover urged the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution endorsing the sanctions imposed on the illegal authorities of Anjouan by the PSC.

Gender: The Assembly called on member states to implement all the commitments made in the AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) and requested Member states to adopt the content of SDGEA as a platform for gender equality at rational level and incorporate it in the African Peer Review Mechanism reports. The Assembly also requested the AUC to continue to expand the gender parity principle adopted by the assembly to all organs of the African Union.

Climate Change: The Assembly requested the AU Commission to engage in collaboration with Member states in a process to designate an eminent African personality as a special envoy of the Union in charge of maritime and climate change matters. The Assembly also called on coastal Member States to speed up the process of preparing and submitting the claims for the extension of the limits of their continental shelf and requested the AU Commission to assist member states in this regard.

Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development: The Assembly reiterated its commitment to take responsibility and provide leadership to advance actions towards the implementation of the MDGs particularly those related to the promotion of maternal, infant and child health and survival and development. In this regard mandated the chairperson of AU to mobilize resources and lastly requested the AUC to include this issue on the agenda of the 11th ordinary session.

Industrial development of Africa: The Assembly adopted a declaration and endorsed an action plan for the accelerated industrial development of Africa and encouraged Africans in the Diaspora to increase their contribution to the industrial development of Africa.

African Education Science and Technology fund: The Assembly authorized the establishment of an African Education, Science and Technology fund and requested the AUC and African Development Bank to expedite the creation of the fund by 2009.

NEPAD: The Summit agreed to proceed with the integration of NEPAD into the AU structures and processes.

EPAs: The Summit reiterated that EPAs must serve as instruments for the promotion of sustainable development, eradication of poverty and the reinforcement of regional integration in Africa and called for the review of the interim EPAs inline with the concerns raised during the Africa-EU Summit. The Summit also urged Africa Negotiating Groups and RECs to work closely among themselves and with the AUC and UNECA and finally urged the RECs and African Negotiating Groups that have initiated Interim Agreements to ensure that final agreements to be signed are coherent with their regional integration agenda.

Next AU Summit: July 2008 Summit will be held in Egypt (Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh).


SOME SIDE ACTIVITIES ORGANIZED BY CSOs


CSO Continental Conference: 23-24 January

The Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union (CCP-AU) gathered over 2 days more than 80 CSOs’ leaders from all African regions to discuss key issues of the Summit agenda mainly the Union Government, the performance review of the AU, peace and security and the Economic Partnership Agreements. A CSOs’ Communiqué covering those key issues was adopted at the end of the Conference and circulated among delegations and the media. A public forum on the state of the African Union was also organized. The forum attracted more than 200 participants.
Strengths: Well organized, this has been the most important CSOs’ event of the Summit and this is the first time Ethiopian CSOs took part actively in AU Summit event. Ethiopian Ambassador to the AU made an opening remark.
Weaknesses: Impossible to organize a coordinated lobby meetings following the adoption of the Communiqué as CSOs could not get accreditation from the AU Commission.

High-level event on the Responsibility to Protect: 28 January 2008

Co-organized by Oxfam and its partners (Darfur Consortium, the International Refugee Rights Initiatives, Afroflag Youth Vision and Femme Africa Solidarite) and co-hosted by the Government of Cameroon, Chair of the Peace and Security Council of the AU, this event feature a photographic exhibition, and presentations by Emmanuel Jal and Bineta Diop over a cocktail reception. Over 100 participants attended the event.
Strengths: Well organized, the PSC Chair Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon made a speech. Good turnout from CSOs and some AU Commission staff from the Peace and Security Department.
Weaknesses: Ministers did not attend as the Ethiopian Government also organized another cocktail at the same time with 24 hours notice for Ministers of Foreign Affairs. We lost the opportunity for a lobby event.

Press Conference on the situation in Darfur: 29 January 2008
Organized by Darfur Consortium, the International Refugees Rights Initiatives and Emmanuel Jal, this press conference gathered a dozen international Media and featured updates on the situation in Darfur and key CSO’s recommendations.

Training of Journalists organized by the AU Monitor/FAHAMU
Ten journalists (Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Benin, South Africa and Burundi) trained on AU history and structures, Audit, Union Government, Africa industrialisation , peace and security and EPAs. These journalists broke new ground with the production of a tri-lingual (English, French and Amaharic) daily newsletter during the Summit. 2000 copies were circulated to national delegations, CSOs and AU staff (available also at http://www.aumonitor.org)

Solidarity for African Women Rights (SOAWR) strategy meeting
This meeting gathered 50 members from SOAWR member organisations drawn from 15 countries across Africa. At the workshop, experiences on the progress of the process of implementation of the Protocol on African Women’s Rights across the countries represented highlighted the slow pace to ratify the protocol due to political, cultural and financial barriers. Hence participants unanimously committed to harness all resources in order accelerate ratification and make an appeal for States’ accountability in creating enabling environment to the domestication of the protocol."

A communiqué of the workshop and on solidarity with Kenya was produced.

Pre-Summit Consultative meeting on gender mainstreaming organized by Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS)

40 women from member organisations drawn from 10 countries across Africa under the auspices of Gender is my Agenda. A communiqué of the workshop and on solidarity with Kenya was also produced.

African Women Consultation on Darfur organized by Femmes Africa solidarite (FAS)
This meeting brought together at least 100 men and women with at least 70 from within Sudan. The meeting allowed FAS to speak about their recent visits to Darfur and Chad and provided an excellent constituency for bringing women from the west, south and capital of Sudan together on a peace mission. This also provided an opportunity to network with different West African Organizations working on Women’s Rights and Peace and Security.

Book Launch on the Union Government of Africa organized by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS)
The book was widely distributed to the national delegations and Addis based Embassies.

MEDIA BASED ACTIONS
Six (6) Media statements released on the following issues: Peace and Security, Economic Partnership Agreement, Union Government and outcomes of the Summit.
One (1) Op-Ed published on Darfur/Chad
Radio interviews (Radio France International, SABC and Radio Senegal)
TV debates on SABC and CNBC, South Africa
Articles written by SABC, AP etc.

Some Media hits:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010401256.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?breve8595

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzErXAPS0ivpm6vCdSmzRm0wy2dAD8UG62RO2

http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/50655

http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?breve8741

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801310101.html

http://www.pr-inside.com/kenya-s-crisis-is-africa-s-problem-at-r413122.htm

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