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
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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


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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.