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Opening Statement by HE President TM Mbeki, outgoing Chairperson of the African Union, at the 2nd
ordinary session of the assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union
Maputo, Mozambique
10 July 2003
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The past year was again a
challenging period in our efforts
towards the regeneration of our
continent. We continued to
experience occasional setbacks as we
march forward towards a new era in
the evolution of our continent.
At the same time, however, there is
no doubt that as a continent we have
begun to experience a rebirth. We
have started a journey of renewal,
of reclaiming our glorious past, of
using that which is good and best in
our collective experience, for our
development and for a prosperous
future.
Indeed we have declared this, the
21st century, the African century,
knowing the challenges that face our
continent as it strives to clamber
out of the chasm of despair into
which it has been cast by the
disheartening history of slavery,
imperialism, colonialism,
neo-colonialism, apartheid, economic
exploitation and marginalisation.
We all agree that the new African
world that we seek to build is one
of democracy, peace and stability,
sustainable development and a better
life for all our people.
We articulated this rebirth of our
continent during our Extraordinary
Summit in Sirte on 9 September 1999,
when we discussed ways of amending
the OAU Charter to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of our
Organisation. We will recall that we
adopted the Sirte Declaration
expressing our wish to establish the
African Union in conformity with the
ultimate objectives of the OAU
Charter and the provisions of the
Abuja Treaty.
We also decided to accelerate the
process of implementing the Abuja
Treaty, in particular regarding the
shortening of its implementation
periods; the speedy establishment of
all the institutions provided for in
the Abuja Treaty, such as the
African Central Bank, the African
Monetary Union, the African Court of
Justice and in particular, the
Pan-African Parliament; and the
strengthening and consolidating the
of regional economic communities as
the pillars for achieving the
objectives of the African Economic
Community and realising the
envisaged Union.
Since the historic Summit in Sirte,
we adopted the Constitutive Act of
the African Union during the Lomй
Summit on 11 July 2000 to establish
the African Union as the successor
organisation to the OAU.
As we know, the establishment of the
African Union was declared on 2
March 2001 at a second extraordinary
Summit in Sirte. This Summit decided
that the Lusaka Summit in July 2001
should take the necessary decisions
pertaining to the transformation of
the OAU into the African Union, and
prepare the necessary draft
protocols relating to the organs and
institutions of the Union.
The transition period from the OAU
to the African Union was concluded
with the convening of the inaugural
Summit of the African Union that
took place in Durban from 9 to 10
July 2002.
Again, we will recall that the
Durban Summit was able to debate
only the few outstanding issues
regarding the Rules of Procedure of
the Assembly, the Executive Council,
the Permanent Representatives
Committee, the Statutes of the
Commission and the Protocol
establishing the Peace and Security
Council.
The Durban Summit succeeded to wind
down the business of the OAU, this
being its last meeting.
Subsequently, the Assembly of Heads
of State and Government launched the
African Union, with some of its key
organs in place, during what was the
1st session of the Assembly of the
Union.
This Summit gives us the opportunity
to critically assess the
achievements that have been made
since the establishment of the Union
and the challenges still facing us.
It would be natural and correct to
evaluate progress in terms of
quantitative results - such as the
number of organs of the Union that
have been established, or the number
of conflict situations on the
continent resolved, or the number of
NEPAD projects implemented.
At the same time, it would be
appropriate to evaluate the
development of the Union since its
inaugural summit in terms of other
important matters of creating a
climate, across the continent, of
renewed energy, eagerness and
enthusiasm to speed up the
development of our continent, and
commitment to the objectives
contained in the Constitutive Act.
During the year under review, we
have been engaged in several
processes to establish critical
institutions that are to serve as
vehicles to realise our aspirations
in bringing democracy, peace and
stability to our people, based on
programmes and projects founded on
solid principles of democracy, good
political and economic governance,
social justice, respect for human
rights and a culture of tolerance,
transparency and accountability, as
stipulated in the Constitutive Act.
The earliest possible signing,
ratification and entry into force of
the Protocol establishing the Peace
and Security Council, the Protocol
on the African Economic Community
establishing the Pan-African
Parliament and the Court of Justice,
together with the activation of the
African Peer Review Mechanism are
central to the consolidation of
peace, democracy and development and
must therefore receive our urgent
attention.
The agenda for regional integration
and sustainable development must
also be advanced through the
harmonisation of our economic
policies and movement towards the
establishment of the relevant
financial institutions. In this
regard, the PRC and the Executive
Council have already done some good
work.
Since the Union came into being, it
has been seized with efforts to
resolve a number of conflicts and
cases of instability across the
continent, namely in the DRC,
Burundi, Sudan, Comoros, Sierra
Leone, Madagascar, CAR, Somalia and
Cote d'Ivoire.
Clearly, conflict resolution is a
top priority for the Union. As a
consequence, conflicts that have
been raging for many years are being
tackled with increased determination
and many African countries are
committing their own resources to
conflict prevention, management and
resolution.
In this context, we have also been
working with the G8 group of
countries to develop a plan for
strengthening the capacity of peace
support operations at the African
Union and in the regions. The G8
countries have made a commitment to
support the plan.
We will soon establish the Peace and
Security Council as a standing
decision-making organ for the
prevention, management and
resolution of conflicts. As we are
aware, the Council will be a
collective security and
early-warning arrangement to
facilitate timely and efficient
responses to conflicts and crisis
situations in Africa, supported by
the Commission, a Panel of the Wise,
a Continental Early Warning System,
an African Standby Force and a
Special Fund.
In terms of the operationalisation
of the Peace and Security Council,
we will during this Summit consider
the rules of procedure for the
Council, as well as other issues,
such as the composition of the Panel
of the Wise; the membership of the
Council; the modalities for the
Standby Force and its actual
establishment; and funding the
activities of the Council.
In Lusaka we confirmed the Regional
Economic Communities as the building
blocks of the Union, necessitating
the need for their close involvement
in the formulation and
implementation of all programmes of
the Union. In this context, the
Union must co-ordinate and take
decisions on policies in areas of
common interest to the member
states, as well as co-ordinate and
harmonise policies between the
existing and future regional
economic communities, for the
gradual attainment of the objectives
of the Union.
A major development for our new
organisation was the adoption of the
New Partnership for Africa's
Development by the Lusaka Summit as
Africa's principal agenda for
development, providing a holistic,
comprehensive and integrated
strategic framework for the
socio-economic development of the
continent, within the institutional
framework of the African Union.
The creation of NEPAD has helped to
place Africa at the apex of the
global agenda, by:
- Creating an instrument for
advancing people-centred sustainable
development in Africa;
- Using the rich natural resources
and people for the benefit of
Africans and ensuring that these
masses are themselves the agents of
change; and,
- Providing a common African
platform from which to engage the
rest of the international community
in a dynamic partnership that holds
real prospects for creating a better
life for all.
In this regard, we must thank HE Mr
Kofi Annan for the work he did
resulting in the acceptance by the
United Nations of NEPAD as its own
African development programme, and
thank him for appointing Ambassador
Gambari as his Special Africa
Representative.
We must also report that as current
chair of the Union, we were
privileged to address Summit
meetings of Asean and Caricom, of
leaders of East Asia and the
Caribbean respectively. Both
organisations expressed their desire
further to strengthen their links
with our continent by cooperating
with the NEPAD processes. These
matters will have to be followed up.
Again within this context, I must
urge that we speed up our work of
strengthening our relations of
cooperation and solidarity with the
African Diaspora. The Caribbean
leaders requested that we raise this
matter at this Sssembly as firmly as
possible, in the knowledge that
their brothers and sisters in Africa
would respond by engaging Caricom to
find practical ways of building an
effective partnership between Africa
and the Caribbean.
In this regard, I must also inform
the Assembly of the invitation
extended to all of us by the
Government and people of Haiti, who,
on January 1st next year, will
celebrate the bicentenary of the
historic victory of the African
slaves of Haiti. As the Assembly is
aware, in 1804 Haiti became the
first black republic in the world,
having defeated the armies of
Napoleon that sought to maintain
Haiti as a slave colony.
The work that we continue to do
around NEPAD has helped us to change
the development paradigm such that
we engage our development partners
as equals based on programmes drawn
up by Africans. We look forward to
the report on NEPAD that will be
presented by the chairperson of the
Implementation Committee, HE
President Olusegun Obasanjo.
There is an on-going challenge to
ensure that we advance the vision of
the African Union to build a
partnership between governments and
all segments of civil society, in
order to strengthen solidarity and
cohesion among the peoples of
Africa.
Undoubtedly, the active involvement
of African non-governmental
organisations, professional
associations and civil society
organisations, in particular women,
youth, trade unions and the private
sector are required in Africa's
integration process as well as in
the formulation and implementation
of programmes of the African Union.
In this context, there is a
particular weakness in what we have
managed to achieve thus far. The
organs of the African Union that
have been launched so far are all
state related. We should be
concerned that we have not made
sufficient progress with regard to
the formation of the Economic,
Social and Cultural Council
(ECOSOCC). I think we would all
agree that this situation is
undesirable, because in the various
Union meetings held during the past
year, concern about alienating the
people in the establishment of the
Union has been expressed.
We must act to live up to our
commitment to ensure the urgent
involvement of civil society
organisations and professional
bodies in the processes of the
Union. Accordingly, it is necessary
to finalise the proposals for the
launching of ECOSOCC.
We are still faced with many
challenges for us to make this
continental organisation a vibrant
and effective instrument for the
development of our continent. To
achieve this we would have to
dedicate more time, energy and
resources to the AU. We have to
place our individual national
interests within the context of our
continental and collective
interests. The issue of funding the
budget of the Union through a
revised scale of assessments, as
well as investigating alternate
sources of funding must therefore be
important matters for our
consideration.
Even though we will defend our
interests as member states in the
various organs of the Union, we must
at the same time be obliged to take
into account the objectives and
needs of the Union as a whole. In
this regard, I am confident that we
will continue to work within the
organs of the Union on the
understanding that these are
continental institutions for the
benefit of all our countries.
Consequently, we should not aspire
to seek the lowest common
denominator between us in our
deliberations within each organ, but
rather work towards an optimum
balance between the Union's and the
member states' interests.
I would like to thank all our Heads
of State and Government, the
Ministers, the Interim Chairperson
of the AU Commission and the
Commissioners, the esteemed
Secretary-General of the United
Nations and the specialised agencies
of the UN, as well as other
governments throughout the world,
together with the multilateral
organisations, for the cooperation
they have extended to us during the
period of our chairpersonship of the
Union. This made it possible for us
to take a few steps forward towards
fulfilling our shared goal of the
renaissance of Africa.
The expectations of the masses of
our people have been raised to
higher levels. The peoples of the
rest of the world are greatly moved
at the common effort in which we are
engaged, to take our destiny into
our hands, creating for ourselves a
continent of peace, democracy,
prosperity and African and human
solidarity. Together we have made a
good beginning. Together, let us
move forward faster to build a life
of hope for the children of Africa
and the African Diaspora.
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