AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT: HUMAN RIGHTS OUTCOMES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADDIS ABABA 002009 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/MLA AND AF/RSA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV AU XA SUBJECT: AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT: HUMAN RIGHTS OUTCOMES REF: ADDIS ABABA 1709 (NOTAL) ¶1. SUMMARY: The African Union Summit met June 21-July 2 in Banjul, The Gambia, with the nominal theme of "Regional Integration and Harmonization of Regional Economic Communities (RECs)." For the United States, as an AU partner (i.e. non-member),most sessions were closed; however, these are the outcomes as collected by a DRL Officer on the margins of the Summit and from final decisions, declarations, and communiques. Key outcomes included a civil society declaration on the APRM and other governance issues; a decision to extend the deadline for integrating NEPAD into the AU to January 2007; adoption of a Declaration on the 25th Anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; a decision to allow former Chadian president Habre to be tried in Senegal, rather than Belgium; and consolidation of the African Court on Human and People's Rights, and the Court of Justice of the African Union, into a unified African Court of Justice and Human Rights. The AU Summit also adopted an African Youth Charter. Libyan opposition to language on governments that came to power through coups prevented the Summit from adopting a proposed African Charter on Democracy. END SUMMARY. CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM OUTCOMES -------------- ¶2. In advance of the July 2 AU Assembly of the Heads of State, civil society organizations (CSOs) from 19 African countries met in Banjul from June 26-28 to discuss ways of improving compliance with commitments made under African Union treaties, with particular reference to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The participants reached the following conclusions in relation to: --African Peer Review Mechanism: The CSOs welcomed the APRM as a useful new process and recommended that those responsible for APRM processes improve the quality of civil society participation in APRM self-assessment. --Access of Information: Independent civil society monitoring of government performance is impossible without access to reliable, quality, and up-to-date information. However, dependable information is hard to obtain -- even by other government departments and even when such information is required to be made public by law. CSOs urged African governments to change existing inadequate laws, enact freedom of information laws, and ensure effective implementation. --Citizenship, Discrimination and Participation: The denial of legal citizenship marginalizes specific groups, and the existence of different categories of citizenship entrenches discrimination. CSOs specifically recommended that States should: 1) not create barriers to political participation based on origin or ethnicity; 2) ensure that discrimination should not deprive specific groups of their rights to economic and political participation; 3) bring national laws into conformity with international human rights standards; and 4) recommend that the AU develop a new treaty to strengthen the rights of Africans to citizenship and nationality on a non-discriminatory basis. --Increasing AU/CSO Relations: CSOs welcomed the CSO forum in advance of the Summit, after the absence of such a forum for at least two summits. However, CSOs expressed regret that they were unable to freely organize their own events. The Coordination Committee established by the Government of The Gambia tried to block the organization of a forum on freedom of expression. CSOs should be free to organize their own events, without the need for permission from the AU, which it currently requires. --Civil Society Organizations' own activities: CSOs must develop their own capacity to engage more effectively with efforts by the AU, APRM, and other institutions; must improve coordination and networking; reach out more effectively to rural and grassroots organizations; reach out to the media more to strengthen relationships with journalists; organize to engage the state and non-state actors on their own initiative in order to contribute pro- actively to the definition of the national agenda. ¶3. COMMENT: On the margins of the CSO Forum in Banjul, there was a counter-CSO Forum, not sponsored by the AU, which produced a communique that was widely distributed. ADDIS ABAB 00002009 002 OF 003 This "shadow" forum caused great confusion, because they spoke at the CSO press conference following the conclusion of the actual AU-sponsored CSO Forum. Only seven countries (Congo, The Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zambia) were represented at this "shadow" CSO forum. In their published and widely- distributed declaration, they recommended that AU members "promote Intra-African Trade and harmonize policies of the Regional Economic Communities and stop ALL unilateral negotiations on EPAs and AGOA." When asked by poloffs why they opposed AGOA, a widely popular program, the representative remarked that it was because CSOs were not consulted before governments adopted AGOA. In contrast, the authentic CSO declaration affirmed support for AGOA. END COMMENT. OUTCOMES OF NEPAD'S INTEGRATION INTO THE AU -------------- ¶4. As decided at the July 2003 AU Summit in Maputo, the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) was to be integrated into the structure of the African Union by mid- ¶2006. However, at the Summit, Heads of State decided to extend the deadline an additional six months to January 2007 (when the next AU Summit will be held in Addis Ababa). To further coordinate the transition of NEPAD to the AU, realign NEPAD with its original objectives, and to finalize the structure, the Heads of State decided to create a committee comprising: the AU Chairperson (Congo President Sassou Nguesso),AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairman of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) (President Olusegun Obasanjo),President Mbeki of South Africa, the Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Secretariat Prof. Firmino G. Mucavele, and the Vice-Chairpersons of the HSGIC. AFRICAN CHARTER ON DEMOCRACY NOT ADOPTED -------------- ¶5. Due to disagreement (Libyan) about language on governments that came to power through coups, the African Charter on Democracy was not/not adopted. BANJUL DECLARATION OF THE CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS -------------- -------------- ¶6. The AU adopted a "Declaration on the 25th Anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights" (ACHPR) which notes that the "African Charter has contributed to the development of human rights norms on the continent, including the adoption of supplementary instruments, such as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the Protocols on the establishment of the African Court of Human and People's Rights and on the Rights of Women." The Declaration continues to "rededicate ourselves to ensuring respect for human and peoples' rights as a prerequisite for the attainment of our common vision of a united and prosperous Africa, and reaffirm our confidence in the ACHPR." HISSENE HABRE TO BE TRIED IN SENEGAL -------------- ¶7. At the Summit, an African Union panel decided that former Chadian president Hissene Habre would be tried in Senegal, rather than extradited to Belgium to face prosecution for war crimes. Habre is accused of widespread atrocities between 1982 -1990, after he took control of Chad after a coup. An inquiry overseen by his successor accuses him of killing 40,000 people and torturing 200,000 others. ¶8. In 2000, Habre was first charged with human rights abuses by a Senegalese court. However, the court ruled that it did not have authority to try him, and no African states spoke up to try the case. In 2005, a Belgium court issued an arrest warrant for Habre, under a law allowing Belgian courts to prosecute crimes against its citizens wherever they are committed. Senegal refused to extradite Habre and asked the African Union to study the issue. The AU formed a panel of legal experts and issued a decision the last day of the Summit that Habre be tried in Senegal. In the outcome, the AU panel recommended that Senegal pass a law allowing its courts to have jurisdiction over the crimes that Habre allegedly committed. COMMENT: Governments, NGOs, and the general public alike hail this decision as a positive outcome of the Summit. END COMMENT. ESTABLISHING THE AFRICAN COURT OF JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADDIS ABAB 00002009 003 OF 003 -------------- -------------- ¶9. On June 10, 1998, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights established an African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, which entered into force on January 25, ¶2004. The AU established a protocol for the Court of Justice on July 11, 2003. At the Summit in Banjul, the AU voted to merge the African Court on Human and People's Rights and the Court of Justice of the African Union into a single court: "The African Court of Justice and Human Rights". ¶10. Cases pending before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights will be transferred to the Human Rights Section of the African Court of Justice. The African Court of Justice will be the main judicial organ of the African Union. ¶11. The Court will consist of 15 independent nationals of State Parties to serve six-year terms as judges, 11 of whom were sworn in the last day of the Summit in Banjul. The Court will not, at any time, have more than one judge from a single member state. Each geographical region of the continent shall be represented by at least two judges. ¶12. The Court will have two sections: a General Affairs Section composed of eight Judges, and a Human Rights Section composed of seven Judges. ¶13. The Court will be headquartered in Banjul, The Gambia. The AU recommended that the Commission convene the first meeting of the Ministers of Justice in January 2007. AFRICAN YOUTH CHARTER ADOPTED -------------- ¶14. The AU adopted the African Youth Charter as a legal framework of action for African youth and invited member states to sign and ratify the Charter. NOTE: The final text of the African Youth Charter has not yet been publicly distributed. END NOTE. COMMENT -------------- ¶15. On the margins of the Summit, the DRL Officer was informed that the January resolutions from the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights condemning human rights violations in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe (presented at the January 2006 AU Summit in Khartoum) were thrown out by the AU Heads of State on technical grounds. This has not been confirmed in the official communique, which lacks detail. Post is seeking clarification of final outcomes from the AU Commission's Department of Political Affairs. END COMMENT.