Transcript Summary of Putting Parliaments at the Heart of the APRM

Continental Oversight Structures of
the APRM: ECOSOCC, ACHPR and PAP
By
Dr. Khabele Matlosa, UNDP, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
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CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
ECOSOCC
ACHPR
PAP
REPOSITIONING THE PAP’S OVERSIGHT
ROLE OVER THE APRM
• CONCLUDING REMARKS
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
• Transformation from OAU to AU in the 1990s;
• Paradigm shift from liberation to continental/regional
integration;
• Accelerated re-democratisation of Africa;
• Thus, integration conceived as entailing three interlocking
imperatives:
– Democratic governance (accountability, transparency and
citizen participation)
– Peace & Security (political stability & management of
diversity)
– Development (poverty reduction & achievement of MDGs)
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
• With adoption of the 2000 Constitutive Act, the AU began to
develop a normative framework for nurturing and deepening
democratic governance in the continent;
• Today, the AU has a well articulated normative framework
that provides a solid foundation for its continental governance
architecture;
• Three most important frameworks are:
– 2002 NEPAD Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic
and Corporate Governance;
– 2003 African Peer Review Mechanism; and
– The 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and
Governance.
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
• Of AU’s various normative frameworks, one that has gained
considerable prominence is surely the APRM;
• In order to promote both domestic and external
accountability in governance, continental oversight structures
of APRM have been created;
• Three of these are:
– The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC)
– The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights
(ACHPR); and
– The Pan-African Parliament (PAP)
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
“Six months after the report has been considered by
the Heads of State and Government of the
participating member countries, it should be formally
and publicly tabled in key regional and sub-regional
structures such as the Pan-African Parliament, the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,
the envisaged Peace and Security Council and the
Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of
the African Union. This constitutes the Fifth and final
stage of the process.” (Para.25, APRM Base
Document)
ECOSOCC
• A statutory organ of the AU, with advisory powers (based in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia);
• A CSO forum meant to give voice to non-state actors to
influence AU decisions, even on governance;
• Given its advisory role, its oversight over APRM limited;
• Lacking in institutional capacity and only engages with APRM
at its tail-end;
• Needs to be more empowered through a specific AU protocol;
• Needs to engage with APRM throughout all its five stages
representing voice of CSOs
ACHPR
• ACHPR is an organ of the AU (based in Banjul, The Gambia);
• Est. in 1986 in accordance with Article 30 of the African
Charter on Human and People’s Rights (one of APRM’s Key
Standards and Codes);
• It primary mandate is to promote and protect human rights in
AU member states;
• It considers reports from AU member states on the state of
human and people’s rights every two years ;
• But many AU member states have defaulted on their
reporting obligations;
• Currently, its 47th Session is sitting in Banjul, The Gambia on
12-26 May 2010;
ACHPR
• APRM not on the agenda of this 47th Session;
• ACHPR engages with APRM rather tangentially;
• Thus, its oversight role over the APRM ad-hoc and not
systematic;
• Given that the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights
is one of the core Standards and Codes of the APRM, ACHPR
should play a more proactive role in APRM;
• It should engage with the process throughout all its five stages
and hold governments accountable for human rights abuses
and violations.
PAP
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One of the key Organs of the AU representing voice of elected
representatives at national level of member states;
Est. through the 1991 Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic
Community, PAP is based in Midrand, South Africa;
The Protocol establishing the PAP, and giving it its legal persona, accords
it mere advisory (rather than legislative) powers;
A transformational process now underway to review the founding
protocol and consider legislative powers for PAP in accordance with the
decision of the AU Heads of State and Government Assembly of Jan.
2009;
One of the meetings on this important process took place between the
PAP and the AU this week;
Both the Protocol (article 11(1) and (9) and the APRM base document
identify PAP as one of the oversight structures of the APRM;
PAP
• Very rarely does the PAP devote its sessions to
considering APRM Country Reports;
• Challenges confronting PAP in its oversight role over
APRM:
– Advisory powers makes PAP lack teeth in its
oversight role;
– Executive dominance through the AUC;
– Institutional capacity deficiencies;
– Engagement with APRM at its tail-end;
– Lack of horizontal accountability compromises
PAP’s vertical accountability function.
REPOSITIONING THE PAP’S
OVERSIGHT ROLE IN APRM
• In order to improve PAP’s oversight role,
its strategic interventions in APRM has to
be repositioned at three main levels:
–The Continental level
–The Sub-Regional level
–The National level
ACTION AT CONTINENTAL LEVEL
• Work with other African Union (AU) organs to integrate the
NEPAD/APRM into AU structures and policy processes;
• Establish formal relationships on APRM matters with ARPM
strategic partners, specifically ECA, UNDP and AfDB;
• Establish an APRM professionalized research unit, or identify
and engage African based research institutions;
• Establish specifically designated NEPAD/APRM committee as
one of its currently 10 standing committees;
• Mandate its members from AU member states to serve as
virtual liaison with national Parliaments on NEPAD/APRM
matters;
• Work with the RECs and their regional Parliaments;
• Take interest in the selection (nomination and election)
processes of the APRM Panel of Eminent persons;
• Devote special sessions to consider Final APRM Reports
formally tabled before it at the end of Stage Five of the APR
country reviews;
• Utilize its participation in extra-African Inter-Parliamentary
fora to disseminate trends and progress in the APRM to show
case its uniqueness and the lessons which others could learn
from it;
• Liaise with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’
Right (ACHPR) to receive its country reports as input to its
own consideration of Final APRM Country Reports; and
• Send delegations to APRM member countries on fact- finding
missions with a view to encouraging peer-reviewed countries
to implement their National Programmes of Action (NPoA).
ACTION AT SUB-REGIONAL LEVEL
• Integration of the APRM into the structures and organs of the
eight RECs officially recognised by the AU;
• Periodic meetings of members of Parliament from the five
regions of the continent to discuss APRM country processes;
• Encouragement of member states of the RECs yet to accede
to the APRM to do so;
• Urging national Parliaments to domesticate the standards and
codes entered into by the country;
• Design and implement of a 3-to-5 year strategic plan to
enhance the oversight, including the budgetary role of
legislatures in the regions – to build and enhance the capacity
of Parliaments and strengthen their internal structures and
organization, specially through the application of ICT and their
research and library resources.
ACTION AT NATIONAL LEVEL
• Parliament should take its membership of the APRM Governing
Council seriously.
• Parliament should create a specifically designated APRM
committee of Parliament.
• Parliament should require APRM National Governing Councils to
submit annual reports on their activities for consideration by
Parliament.
• Parliament should take stock of the standards and codes which
are yet to be ratified and/ or domesticated and initiate
legislative action to that end.
• Parliaments should exercise its oversight and investigatory
powers to ensure accountability in public life. It must act on
Auditors-General annual reports to Parliament.
• In peer-reviewed countries, Parliaments should subject the
NPoA to detailed scrutiny before appropriating moneys in its
favour, and design monitoring mechanism to ensure its prudent
implementation.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
• Even ardent Afro-pessimists now acknowledge
the stark reality that Africa is making
considerable progress in governance;
• One of the indicators of this progress is
undoubtedly the APRM to which more than
50% of AU member states have now acceded;
• The challenge for key governance stakeholders
in Africa is to stay the course and sustain the
momentum of progress thus far made;
CONCLUDING REMARKS
• One important way of deepening governance through APRM
in Africa is to enhance institutional capacity of oversight
structures of the mechanism;
• Enhanced institutional capacity of the ECOSOCC, ACHPR and
PAP should be accompanied by clear political commitment on
the part of the AU for them to play their mandated roles in
APRM;
• Such oversight and accountability mandate ought to allow
these institutions to engage with the APRM not at the tailend, but rather throughout all its five critical stages;
• This should include effective monitoring of the
implementation of the NPoA.