Campaign to promote ‘My Africa, My Voice’ launched (Monday, March 16) page 19
A campaign
to promote accountability and active citizens’ participation in the implementation
of Africa Union (AU) protocols, conventions and policy decisions among member
states of the continental body has been launched in Accra.
Using civil
society organisations (CSOs), music and the media as vehicles, the campaign
forms part of the activities of the State of the Union (SoTU) — a Pan
African CSOs project, which is currently being implemented in 10 African
countries.
Some AU Charters and Conventions
Dubbed “My
Africa, My Voice,” the campaign seeks to rally and empower ordinary citizens to
achieve the objectives of the Africa Union and also demand the status of the
implementation of conventions and protocols, including the African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child and African Convention of Nature and Natural Resources.
Others are
the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption; Protocol
to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights; Rights of Women in Africa;
Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to
the Pan-African Parliament; the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and
Governance; and the African Youth Charter.
The campaign
is being jointly supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional
Integration and Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG).
The Director
of Africa and Regional Integration Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mrs
Sena Siaw-Boateng, who launched the campaign on behalf of the sector
minister, Ms Hanna S. Tetteh, said the project would not only empower Africans
to ask questions about the protocols and conventions but also help
promote the AU agenda.
She observed
that without the support of CSOs, the activities and programmes of the AU
headquarters would be far away from the ordinary people.
She urged
IDEG to train young people in the second cycle institutions to lead the
campaign.
SoTU 2013 Report
According to
the 2013 SoTU Report which audited and monitored Ghana’s compliance and
implementation of AU protocols, conventions and decisions, there exists a gap
between decisions taken by the AU and the practice of most member states.
According to
the report, the gap was such that decisions taken at the continental level
risked the danger of not being implemented nationally.
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