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11th AU Summit - Challenges and
Expectations
(A GNA feature by Francis Ameyibor)
Accra, May 23, GNA - Come June 24 to July 1, Heads of State
and Government of Africa, donor partners and civil society
organizations would congregate for the 11th Summit of the
African Union (AU) at the Egyptian town of Sharm El Sheikh
on the theme: "Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on
Water and Sanitation."
The schedule includes meetings of the Permanent
Representatives' Committee from June 24 to 25; the Executive
Council from June 27 to 28 and the Assembly of Heads of
State and government from June 30 to July 1, a draft agenda
obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Accra said.
One significant phenomenon of the Summit would be the
performance of the new Leadership of the AU Commission with
the new Chairperson Mr Jean Ping, who took over the
Commission on the 28 April 2008.
The opening session of the Assembly of Heads of State would
focus on presentations and discussions on the theme as the
Commission in Charge of the theme of the Summit within the
AU Commission is expected to come up with a series of
recommendations for the Assembly's consideration and
adoption.
Other issues to be considered include the Audit of the AU;
merging of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
and the Court of Justice; Election of Members of the African
Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
and Election of members of the African Court on Human and
People's Rights.
The rest are the examination of the Operationalisation of
the African Standby Force (ASF) as part of the AU Peace and
Security Architecture. According to current planning, the
ASF should be operationalized by 2010 in each of the five
geographical regions of the Continent but indications show
that this deadline may not be met.
The Heads of State are expected to consider a report of the
Peace and Security Council (PSC) on the state of peace and
security in Africa focusing mostly on the ongoing situations
in Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe, among other places.
According to Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, an expert of African
Affairs and Executive Director of Institute of Democratic
Governance (IDEG), the first important dossier of the new
team was how to manage the outcome of the AU Audit Report,
which strongly recommended the strengthening of the
Commission.
He told the Ghana News Agency that the recent AU Audit
Report requested by the Grand Debate on the Union Government
at the Accra Summit in July 2007 provided a comprehensive
analysis of the performance of the institution to date.
The report is entitled "Audit of the African Union: Towards
a People-Centred Political and Socio-Economic Integration
and Transformation of Africa."
Most of the recommendations of the report - 40 per cent of
which are on the AU Commission - are intended to
rationalize, strengthen and improve the functioning of all
organs and institutions directly involved in the integration
process in the Continent.
These recommendations, if approved and fully implemented,
would enable the AU to provide a higher level of service and
thus pave the way for the achievement of the political and
economic integration in the shortest possible time.
Many of the recommendations have far reaching implications
both in the short and medium term. There are, however,
recommendations that require the urgent attention and
decision of the Assembly.
The Report has indicated some "accelerators" in order to
speed up the economic and political integration of the
Continent. These include: Free movement of people; Building
inter-regional and transcontinental infrastructures
especially in the fields of transport, communications and
energy.
Others are the promotion of African multinational private
investment companies for financing integration projects -
infrastructure, and the early establishment of the financial
institutions as provided for in the Constitutive Act.
The Commission has also presented a Working Paper on the
report of High Level Panel including its own observations as
well as comments of the other Organs of the Union.
The Heads of State are expected to decide on the outcome of
the Executive Council special session, which discussed the
159 recommendations of the Audit Report in Arusha, Tanzania,
between May 6 and 7 2008.
ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION
It is expected that Civil Society Organisations (CSO) would
use the 11th Summit to mount intensive significant pressure
for change and fight for the interest of the Continent. CSOs
must exert pressure for the implementation of the Audit
Report recommendations especially by national governments.
The upcoming summit also offers CSOs an opportunity to
pressurize the Leaders not to forget the continuing
suffering of millions of people in Darfur, Somalia and
Zimbabwe.
CSOs must attend the 11th Summit with one voice, and not
just play the role of ordinary observers and not to allow
themselves to cowed by African Leaders and their foreign
donors as against the interest of the majority of Africans
It is also expected that CSOs on Darfur and Somalia may use
the opportunity of the Summit to advocate a political
solution rather than military, inclusive political dialogue
and national reconciliation process.
Neutral interlocutors must be found to facilitate this
process of accountability and fight against impunity of
gross human rights violation. African Leaders must publicly
condemn the serious abuses of international humanitarian law
and human rights laws committed by all parties to the
conflict.
African Leaders must call on all parties in the conflict to
take all necessary steps, including public action, to ensure
that their forces ceased abuses against civilians and to
prosecute members of forces alleged to have committed
abuses.
They must also protect the ability of civil society
organisations, including the humanitarian agencies, to
operate.
Union Government of Africa
On the formation of the Union Government of Africa, it is
expected that the Summit would come out with a definite
position, and stop the foot-dragging tactics. "We are either
forming the Union Government or Not." The time to decide is
now.
At the 10th Summit held in Addis Ababa, a Presidential
Committee composed of 12 Head of State was created to make
recommendations on how to move the Union Government process
forward.
They were Tanzania (current Chair of the AU), Ghana
(immediate past Chair of the AU), Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon,
Egypt Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and
Uganda.
The Committee met in Arusha, Tanzania on May 22-23 and is
expected to submit a decision to the Assembly. The Committee
would be working on the base of the previous Committee of 10
Foreign Ministers nominated in Accra (July 2007) and would
be building on previous work done.
The Committee's tasks also included examination of the
domains of competence assigned to the AU and the
implications of the sovereignty of Member-States and
Regional Economic Communities, as well as, the roadmap and
financing options for the Union.
The Previous Committee reiterated that the Union Government
should be a union of Governments and Peoples as well as the
Diaspora. It said the primary responsibility of popularising
and ensuring participation of peoples rested with member
States and Union Government should be the mechanism for
coordinating key sectors continentally and internationally.
Seven domains of competence were re-affirmed by previous
committees namely, peace and security; environment;
epidemics/pandemics; trans-national crime;
communications/infrastructure; global trade and
research/university.
Agreement was not reached on defence and foreign policy.
Financing for development, and debt cancellation was not
considered. Legal experts are likely to be brought in to
study the implications on national sovereignty.
No agreement was reached on which structures would be
required or whether Member States should be denied
membership if they acted in a manner that violated key
instruments (OAU Charter, AU Constitutive Act, African
Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, etc).
With just a few weeks to go, a section of Ghanaians who
aired their views on the African Union Government, which was
proposed during the 9th Ordinary Summit of the African Union
in Accra last year, welcomed the unification agenda.
This notwithstanding, the readiness and commitments of
African Leaders in ensuring that the tendency became a
reality was what most of the Ghanaians interviewed were not
too sure about.
Mr Eric Peasah, Technical Cooperation Department,
International Organization for Migration, in his opinion
said, the coming together of Africa was a laudable idea that
needed to be given the outmost attention and cooperation.
He said it would help to break barriers and bottlenecks when
it came to movements between member countries. "Africa
forming a union government would give the Continent more
bargaining power over its economic activities", he said.
Mr Ernest Brown, Senior Manager Business Operations, Zipnet,
was of the view that it was a bold step that the Continent
was trying to take but it would depend on how they did it as
Union Government was long overdue and that Africa should not
waste any more time in carrying out the task.
"I suggest that those countries ready to form the Union
government should take the first step for others to follow
later," he said.
It is expected that the 11th Summit would confront the
adoption and implementation of a more responsive and rights
based social policy framework for Africa. Among them are the
non-implementation of existing social continental policy
standards contained in various AU Decisions and Declarations
and the MDGs, poor national and inter-ministerial linkages
and inadequate resources.
Africans on the Continent and those in the Diaspora are
anxiously waiting for the outcome of the 11th AU Summit,
whether it would be a talking shop for Heads of State and
Government and an opportunity for them to renew their
friendship or an action oriented summit that would have far
reaching effects on the citizen.
GNA
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