AU Monitor: Issue 124, 2008

[Hakima Abbas]

Weekly Roundup - Issue 124, 2008

During the African Union Summit in Ethiopia, Afroflag Youth Vision  
and the AU Monitor initiative of Fahamu collaborated, with the  
support of TrustAfrica, to train ten journalists from across the  
continent on the African Union and its organs. These journalists  
broke new ground in producing the “AU Monitor Daily” newspaper in  
three languages.  Copies were circulated widely to policy-makers,  
civil society and citizens during the course of the summit.  Issues  
of the AU Monitor Daily are now available for download.

This week’s AU Monitor brings you the decisions from the Executive  
Council and the Assembly from the recently concluded African Union  
summit.  The Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union  
has also provided a comprehensive summary of the proceedings and  
decisions from the summit, which notes with disappointment the lack  
of, and debacle over, civil society accreditation in Addis Ababa.

As the AU attempts to identify the issues hampering political unity  
of the continent through the formation of a Panel of Heads of States,  
the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre explores the  
historic political camps that continue to play out in the current  
deliberations regarding the union government and audit review  
implementation.  While the Chairperson of the High Level Panel to  
Audit the AU, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, acknowledges the AU audit as  
historically significance, stating: “our expectation is that this  
bold audit initiative will lead to the acceleration of the  
overarching objective of achieving Africa’s political and economic  
integration”, Abdalla Bujra, also a member of the High Level Panel,  
expresses doubt over the African Union’s will for drastic structural  
changes.  Indeed, Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio  
has noted that the AU audit revealed serious shortcomings of the  
organization’s organs and that “the real problem of the Union was a  
lack of political will from the African leaders”.

Regarding the situation in Kenya, the Pan-African Parliament has  
released a report from its observer mission to Kenya’s general  
election, which confirms that “the disputed election fell short of  
matching the democratic election process and the expression and the  
will of the people of Kenya”; the Mission called for an election re- 
run between the two presidential candidates, Raila Odinga and Mwai  
Kibaki.

In further peace and security news, United Nations Under-Secretary- 
General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno rebuts the  
Sudanese government’s insistence on an all African force for Darfur  
stating that “one of the lynchpins to the success” of the U.N.- 
African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is the composition of its  
peacekeeping force.  In other developments, the Peace and Security  
Council of the AU has expressed support for the proposed Libyan- 
Congolese joint commission for peace in Chad, hailing Libyan leader,  
Mouammar Kadhafi, for his efforts to address the crisis.

Finally, ahead of the Conference of the AU Ministers of Youth, the AU  
Commission’s Director of Human Resources, Science and Technology,  
Abdul Hakim Elwaer, deplores the slow ratification of the African  
Youth Charter, adopted in June 2006, in light of the fact that  
“genuine commitment to Africa’s development and the renewed sense of  
good governance would bear fruit by taking the youth on board”.


Disappointment on the Audit

Abdalla Bujra, Executive Director DPMF, Member of the Audit Panel—As  
part of the Grand Debate on the Union Government, the Accra Summit in  
July 2007 took two important decisions, among others. Firstly the  
Assembly set up a Ministerial Committee of ten to look into the  
different aspects of a possible Union Government; and secondly the  
Assembly requested an Audit of the African Union. For this purpose, a  
High Level Panel of 13 Africans were appointed by the Chairperson of  
the African Union to conduct the Audit.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/1001


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.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/999


AU Monitor Daily Launched!

During the African Union Summit in Ethiopia, Afroflag Youth Vision  
and the AU Monitor initiative of Fahamu collaborated, with the  
support of TrustAfrica, to train ten journalists from across Africa  
on the African Union and its organs. These journalists broke new  
ground in producing a Daily newspaper in three languages, English,  
French and Amharic, during the summit. A thousand copies of seven  
issues of the AU Monitor Daily were circulated widely to policy- 
makers, civil society and citizens.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/1000


Audit of the African Union

Professor Adebayo Adedeji, CFR, Chairperson High Level Panel—The  
initiative to undertake the audit of the African Union is one of  
great historic significance. That the African Heads of State agreed  
that their revered organisation and their African Union policies,  
programmes and projects should be subjected to a wide-ranging and  
comprehensive audit review marks a turning point in the history of  
pan-Africanism.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/998


Slow Ratification of African Youth Charter

(PANA) - Despite the view shared by many Africans that the  
continent’s future depends on its youth, most of the member countries  
of the African Union (AU) have been slow to ratify the African Youth  
Charter adopted by the Heads of State and Government in June 2006,  
according to a senior official of the AU Commission.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/997


PAP Election Observer Mission to Kenya

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has released a statement of its  
observer mission to Kenya’s general election, which states: "it is  
the Mission’s considered view that the disputed election fell short  
of matching the democratic election process and the expression and  
the will of the people of Kenya."

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/996


U.N. Challenges All-African Force

Thalif Deen (IPS) - The U.N. Secretariat is challenging an implicit  
demand by the government of Sudan for an all-African peacekeeping  
force in politically-troubled Darfur.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/995


Audit Revealed Malfunctioning

(PANA) - Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio on Tuesday  
said in Dakar that the audit of the African Union (AU) had revealed  
serious malfunctioning of its organs and called for the continent to  
rebuild its unity around key issues.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/994


Peace to Chad

(PANA) - The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has hailed  
the setting up of a Libyan-Congolese joint commission to implement  
the decision of heads of state to bring peace to Chad

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/993


AU Summit Decisions

The AU has released the Executive Council (Executive_Decisions.pdf)  
and Assembly (Assembly_Decisions.pdf) decisions. Please also visit  
the dedicated AU website for full text and audio of speeches made  
during the AU summit.

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/992


High-Level Accelerates Unification

(SANF) - The African Union has accelerated plans for unification  
through the establishment of a high-level group of heads of state and  
government, under the leadership of President Jakaya Kikwete of the  
United Republic of Tanzania, who is the new AU chairperson

Read more: www.aumonitor.org/comments/975


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Hakima Abbas
Policy Analyst, AU-Monitor
Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice
Email: hakima at fahamu.org
Skype: hakima_abbas
www.aumonitor.org
www.fahamu.org
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