Zimbabwe aims to highlight disaster prevention and foreign militaries in Africa
The PSC Report spoke to Zimbabwe’s Ambassador Albert Chimbini about Zimbabwe’s plans for the PSC in August 2019.
Zimbabwe chairs the Peace and Security Council (PSC) for the month of August 2019, when the council will be discussing a range of issues – from preventing disasters to the presence of foreign troops on African soil. The PSC Report spoke to Zimbabwe’s Ambassador Albert Chimbini about Zimbabwe’s plans for the month.
What are the major peace and security issues that the PSC will focus on in August 2019?
There are statutory meetings that the PSC has to convene during the month of August 2019, which are important to its agenda and are included in the programme of work adopted in July 2019. Key issues to be addressed include natural and other disasters and peace and security; the state of foreign military presence in Africa and its implications for the African Common Defence and Security Policy; cooperation, coordination and collaboration between the PSC and regional economic communities and regional mechanisms (RECs/RMs) on peace and security related matters; and the concept of popular uprisings and how it impacts peace and security on the continent.
The PSC will also hold its annual consultative meeting with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
Key issues to be addressed include the concept of popular uprisings and how it impacts peace and security
What should be the role of the African Union (AU) in disaster prevention and management?
Article 15 of the PSC Protocol confers upon the council the responsibility to ‘take active part in coordinating and conducting humanitarian action in order to restore life to normalcy in the event of natural disasters’. The AU Commission (AUC) is endowed with the normative frameworks, the required structures and some funding to manage and mitigate natural and other disasters. The existing structures should be capacitated to sustainably activate preventative measures, partly through the timely dissemination of relevant information to all stakeholders. An effective early warning mechanism is therefore critical. The AU is establishing a database that will enable experts to foretell natural disasters.
The African Standby Force (ASF) is one mechanism that is charged with the responsibility to conduct humanitarian action. The AUC is expeditiously taking measures to operationalise the AU Humanitarian Agency. Equally important is the need for a rapid response team that is adequately staffed and equipped to intervene and manage disasters as and when they occur. The AU, in collaboration with other stakeholders, should manage post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction in a manner that empowers local communities to mitigate the effects of future disasters.
Equally important is the need for a rapid response team that is adequately staffed and equipped to intervene
Why is the PSC discussing institutional relationships and partnerships between the AUC, foreign states and/or organisations?
Article 3 of the AU Constitutive Act states that one of the key objectives of the union is to ‘establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international organizations’.
Further, the PSC Protocol in articles 12, 17, and 20 sets parameters for the council to collaborate and to hold consultations with parties concerned by or interested in conflict situations in Africa. Such collaboration and consultations have been ongoing between the PSC, foreign states and/or organisations, with some being formalised partnerships. Despite the laid-out frameworks for collaboration and consultations, it is necessary that the state and scope of institutional relationships be reviewed as it relates to their efficacy towards the anticipation, prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in Africa. It is therefore necessary to continuously review the relationships with the objective of assessing whether they are fit for purpose in view of the ever-changing dynamics.
It is necessary that the state and scope of institutional relationships be reviewed
Why is the presence of foreign militaries a concern for the PSC?
In pursuit of the implementation of the African Common Defence and Security Policy, the PSC should systematically and periodically take comprehensive stock of the defence and security dynamics on the continent. A key principle of the AU that is contained in its Constitutive Act is to ‘establish and implement a common defence and security policy for the African continent’. The policy was adopted in Durban, South Africa in July 2002 by the AU Assembly. It is premised on the collective responsibility of African states to face common security threats to the continent and in line with the Solemn Declaration on a Common African Defence and Security Policy. The defence of Africa involves both traditional and non-military aspects that relate to the protection of people’s political, cultural, social and economic values and their ways of life. Africa’s non-military security threats emanate from the prevailing international environment and the high incidence of intra-state conflict.
Africa’s security threats emanate from the prevailing international environment and the high incidence of intra-state conflict
It is in the context of the above that the council has to evaluate the presence of foreign militaries on the continent with a view to establish whether it complements and/or advances the objectives of the African Common Defence and Security Policy. There are positives and negatives arising from this relationship whose political and socio-economic utility can only be fully exploited and realised through candid engagements with all the stakeholders.
What is the significance of the meeting between the PSC and the ACHPR?
The interface between the PSC and the ACHPR is provided for in the AU Constitutive Act and the PSC Protocol. Article 3 of the Constitutive Act espouses the objective of ‘promoting and protecting human and people’s rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other relevant human rights instruments’. In the same vein, the PSC Protocol states that the council ‘shall seek close cooperation with the ACHPR in all matters relevant to its objectives and mandate. The Commission shall bring to the attention of the Council any information relevant to the objectives and mandate of the PSC.’
The observance and monitoring of human and people’s rights calls for a sustained exchange of views and the evaluation of related activities that impact the consolidation of peace and security on the continent. It has been established that a failure to adhere to the union’s principles related to human and people’s rights often leads to the eruption of conflicts and crises on the continent. In the situations in Sudan and Libya, the PSC tasked the ACHPR to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.
Picture: Jacqueline Cochrane/ISS
