Spotlight: ISS researcher requested to present at the AU Peace and Security Council open session

Dr Solomon A Dersso, a senior researcher at the ISS, was requested to present at the AU PSC open session on 29 April.

Published on 29 April 2014 in Impact

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) is a central decision-making body in the AU, and has over the past decade established itself as the most dynamic body in the AU.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) is the only research organisation with a programme that focuses exclusively on supporting and complementing the work of the AU PSC. The ISS has been producing the monthly PSC Report since 2009, and the Annual Review of the PSC since 2013. It has also collaborated with the AU PSC on a number of occasions, including delivering briefings and providing technical assistance.

Reflecting the valued addition that ISS researchers bring to the work of the AU PSC, the PSC Chairperson for April 2014 and the PSC Secretariat requested Dr Solomon Ayele Dersso, Senior Researcher and ISS specialist on AU PSC issues, to deliver a lead briefing paper on 29 April 2014. The paper will guide the PSC’s open debate on unconstitutional changes of government and popular uprisings.

The request followed on the ISS’s support and substantive involvement during the recent Maseru Retreat of the PSC. Dr Dersso had contributed in articulating the background document for the Maseru Conclusions that the PSC adopted.

In March 2014, the ISS recognised Dr Dersso with the ISS innovation award for his ‘innovation in initiating and spearheading the Annual Review of the AU Peace and Security Council, which was successfully launched on the margins of the AU summit in January 2013, and released again at the AU Summit earlier this year.’

In the course of the coming months and as part of the 10-year anniversary of the PSC, the ISS will release a series of publications by Dr Dersso, including a policy brief and two ISS Today articles.

For more information contact:

Solomon Ayele Dersso, Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis division, ISS Addis Ababa: [email protected]