Summary Report of the PUBLIC SEMINAR ON ANALYSIS OF THE 14 TH ORDINARY SUMMIT OF THE AFRICAN UNION HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT

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1 Summary Report of the PUBLIC SEMINAR ON ANALYSIS OF THE 14 TH ORDINARY SUMMIT OF THE AFRICAN UNION HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT Tuesday 16 th February 2010, 9:00 AM 1.00 PM, Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The African Conflict Prevention Programme (ACPP) of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Addis Ababa Office organized a public seminar entitled Analysis of the 14th Ordinary Summit of the African Union Heads of State and Government. The seminar followed on the heels of the recently concluded 14 th Ordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa from January 28 to February 2, The seminar probed into the implications of the various themes discussed and policy decisions reached relating particularly to the Year of Peace and Security in Africa, Unconstitutional Changes of Governments and the election of new members of the Peace and Security Council. Mr. Roba D. Sharamo, Acting Director of the ISS Addis Ababa Office made the welcoming remarks and noted that it is the tradition of the ISS to make the re-cap of the AU Summit s major decisions and implications. He kindly reminded the audience that on the importance of labeling the year 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security in Africa. He further noted that the seminar was conducted under the Chatham House rules in order to encourage a free and frank discussion between members of the diplomatic community and elements of the civil society in an atmosphere of trust. 1

2 H.E. Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo who chaired the seminar, made the introductory remarks. She started out by saying that the Summit s outcomes were more than the documents presented before the Summit. She indicated that the Summit witnessed robust discussion and debates. She said that the quality of the documents defines the outcomes of the Summit as in any other international gatherings. She cited the example of the Copenhagen Talk the outcomes of which were framed by the documents submitted for discussion. She also indicated that some of the outcomes of the Summit were the extension of the discussions of previous Summits, for instance, labeling the year 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security in Africa. She also forwarded some critical questions: to what extent will new debates and answers be allowed and to what extent will the Year of Peace and Security in Africa change the direction and nature of the conflict? Regarding the New Partnership for Africa s Development, NEPAD, she questioned whether there was an attempt to build on previous Summits decisions or to reinvent the wheel. she questioned whether there was reinforcement the previous position of NEPAD as related to its integration into the African Union Commission or a reversal of what had been agreed upon. She declared that these questions needed to be addressed squarely and openly. She added that the seminar aimed to deeply analyze the decision of the Summit and recommend what things should be done better for the upcoming July 2010 Summit. She also asked the audience and the panelists to discuss how elements of the civil society like the ISS could enrich the debates and outcomes of the AU Summit. H.E. Ambassador James D. Kalilangwe, Ambassador of the Republic of Malawi to Ethiopia and the AU provided a brief background on the presidency of the African Union, which works on the principle of rotation as stipulated in the rules and procedures of the Assembly. He discussed the vision of Malawi, the new chair of the AU, which are outlined under the theme of Feeding Africa through New Technologies: Let s Act Now. The priorities during Malawi s chairmanship will be food security, infrastructure development and transport, development of information and communications technology and development of energy resources. He said that Malawi believes that information and communications technology can play a pivotal role in the development of agriculture and achieving food security in Africa. Farmers can easily gain access to agricultural products, market information and research 2

3 findings. He also noted the need to encourage African states to invest on other African states. This requires the building of inter-state infrastructure to make the flow of goods and service fast and cheap. He believes that Africa is not poor but it is the people who are poor. We have tremendous resources, but we fail to use it. Africa s natural resources and its people expertise have been one of the engines of the Western countries development. He finally addressed the issue of peace and security which is the priority of the presidency of the AU. He pointed out that most of the conflicts in tend to come from the democratic processes in the continent. Mr. Desire Assogbavi, head of the Oxfam International Liaison Office to the AU, made a presentation decisions of the Summit related to peace and security. He listed the four key documents and decisions of the Summit which are linked to the continent s peace and security situation. These are the report on the PSC activities, the election of the members of the PSC, the Year of Peace and Security in Africa and the report on the constitutional changes of government. He discussed the security situations of Madagascar, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Niger. Mr. Assogbavi commented that the Summit did not come up with strong and concrete action plans as far as Sudan s elections and referendum were concerned. Similarly, he criticized the lack of attention given to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan. However, he appreciated the Summit s strong support for the Mbeki panel s report. Regarding the election of the members of the PSC, he expressed his belief that states which are still in conflict or which just emerged from conflict and are accordingly not stable should not be seated in the PSC. However, the current PSC composition includes such states and seems tenuous. Mr. Assogbavi mentioned Article 8, Paragraph 10 of the Protocol which established the PSC, stated that if a state is involved on the topic of the discussion it should not be a part of the PSC deliberations. In this regard, he advised that the AU should reconsider the criteria for the membership of the PSC. Regarding making the year 2010 the Year of Peace and Security in Africa, he said that this will give a better visibility of Africa s conflict and initiate more collaboration among the states involved, non-state actors and the international community. He appreciated the efforts of the AU in planning to enhance its mediation capacity, the participation of the women and youth of Africa and also to take other measures such as increasing the financial support for peace and security 3

4 issues, appointing an ambassador of peace and involving the members of the civil society as well as research and academic institutions. H.E. Ambassador Guillaume Nseke, Permanent Representative of the International Organization for the Francophonie (OIF), made a presentation entitled The AU Taming Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa: Towards Strengthening African Union s Sanctions Regime. Ambassador Nseke discussed the Summit s decisions related to unconstitutional changes of government in Africa. He mentioned that there are enough legal instruments such as the Constitutional Act of the AU and the Lomé Declaration which thoroughly addressed the forceful takeover of power by the military or other groups. Similarly, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance prohibits coups d état. He noted that the Heads of State and Government indicated that there is no need to add another law but rather to work on the implementation of existing legal documents. However, he reminded the audience that the member states have to ratify the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. He also applauded the zero tolerance policy of the AU when it comes to coup d état. In spite of existing legal documents, the coups d état remains to be the hallmark of the African continent. For example, coups d état recently occurred in states such Mauritania, Madagascar, Comoros and Guinea. He pointed out that the Francophone states are especially prone to undemocratic changes of government. It should be remembered that there is a link between the nature of conflict in Africa and the unconstitutional change of government. Thus, one needs to investigate such a relationship in order to create a better understanding of the incidence of coups d état. Moreover, there were and still are different kinds of responses, at times contradictory, in dealing with the unconstitutional changes of government. This led to biased sanctions which in turn made their implementation rather difficult. He finally mentioned the need for deterring and preventing unconstitutional changes of government than simply focusing on sanctions after they had occurred. After these presentations, the floor was opened for questions, comments and discussions. The public seminar was attended by more than 60 participants drawn from the diplomatic community and civil society organizations. In his concluding 4

5 remarks, Mr. Berouk Mesfin, the Acting Head of the African Conflict Prevention Programme of the ISS Addis Ababa Office, reminded the audience of two general but fundamental issues which are usually neglected. First and foremost, the AU was launched officially in 2002 with a sense that a drastic level of destruction and human sufferings caused by political instability and conflicts led to no other option than the pooling of recourses and formation of workable mechanism of cooperation. He further noted that the AU was established to facilitate the economic integration of Africa in the current competitive era of globalization. Secondly, learning from the experience of the last eight years and based on the common vision of a united and strong Africa, the message that the seminar wanted to convey was that the AU should be a politically, morally and militarily strong institution which possesses sufficient resources, appropriate structure and practical missions. Only then, can it truly and effectively deal with conflict situations and unforeseen events such as unconstitutional changes of government. Finally, Mr. Berouk thanked the distinguished panelists for their excellent presentations, the participants for their constructive participation and the donor community such as the governments of Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands as well as Humanity United for their support to the ISS. 5