The 37th Ordinary Session of Permanent Representatives’ Committee of the African Union was held in Addis Ababa at the headquarters of the African Union this week (January 17-18). The meeting prepared the agenda of the 32nd AU Summit with appropriate recommendations for consideration by the AU’s Executive Council. The theme of the 32nd Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union is “Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa.” The Permanent Representatives’ Committee Meeting is the first of the three statutory meetings held under the framework of the 32nd Summit of the African Union. The second meeting is that of Executive Council, of Foreign Ministers, being held February 7-8; and the final meeting of the Summit is the Assembly of Heads of State and Government which will take place February 10-11.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Kwesi Quartey, on behalf of AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, spoke at the opening session attended by
AUC Commissioners, the Ambassadors of the 55 African Union member states based in Addis Ababa, representatives from the diplomatic corps, the international community, civil society, private sector and invited guests. He noted the Commission had been undergoing far-reaching, sweeping and progressive reforms during the past few months, and underlined: “Gender-Parity is top on the agenda of leadership, transparency, openness, good governance and rule of law, both within the Commission as well as in Ethiopia.” The Deputy Chairperson emphasized the need for these reforms to help Member States work together and enhance their cooperation to achieve the targets set for the Commission. The pillar of this process, he said, was the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC). He emphasized that: “The Administrative and Financial Reforms are at the core of the Commission’s Institutional reform agenda and together we intend to contribute our best efforts towards our Pan-African Vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Continent.”
In a series of closed sessions, the Permanent Representatives deliberated on the reports of their sub-committees, the reports of meetings of the AU Specialized Technical Committees (STCs) during the last six months, the reports of the Commission, and of AU Organs and Specialized Agencies, and items proposed by Member States. The Meeting also considered and prepared draft agenda decisions, and proposed declarations for the 34th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council and the 32nd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly.
During the meeting, speakers emphasized the timeliness and relevance of the theme to Africa. Ethiopia joined other Member States in highlighting some of the substantive issues contained in the various draft reports organized by the African Union Commission. The Ethiopian delegation noted Ethiopia’s experience in hosting close to a million refugees and the way the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) was operationalized to give hope to the refugees. Referring to Internally Displaced Peoples, Ethiopia stressed figures were frequently changing and said the Commission should make every effort to obtain the latest data. In Ethiopia, for example, close to a million people who had been classified as internally displaced people only a few months ago, had now been returned to their places of origin.
