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Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for availing yourselves for this second mid-year coordination meeting of the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms.

We thought it would be important to hold this meeting even under the conditions that have been imposed on us by the coronavirus pandemic, because it is vital that the processes of the African Union and the work of African integration continue.

Invited by the universities of Manchester and Salford, H.E. Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy delivered the keynote address to the symposium celebrating 75th anniversary of the fifth Pan-African Congress that took place in Manchester in October 1945 — a milestone event which brought together then intellectuals and activists such as W.E.B Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Jomo Kenyatta. The Congress was a springboard for these future leaders in connecting with each other and developing new national strategies towards self-rule and decolonization.

Dear Fellow Africans:

Addis Ababa, 21 October 2020: I wish to begin by wishing you all “a happy 2020 Africa Human Rights Day”.

On this auspicious Africa Human Rights Day (AHRD), I am pleased to convey to all Africans and lovers of our dear continent the renewed hope and commitment to the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights as enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).