Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 08 May 2018: The Commissioner for Political Affairs, Amb. Minata Samate Cessouma, represented by Mr. Mbari Calixte Aristide, Head of Democracy, Governance, Human Rights and Elections (DGHRE) Division, addressed the Opening Ceremony of the Continental Gender Consultation on the Draft 10-Year Action Plan of the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade in Africa, taking place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 08-09 May 2018.

The objective of the consultation is to facilitate a continental platform to engage African women and gender experts from across the continent to review the draft 10-Year Action Plan of the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade to ensure that issues related to women’s rights and gender are adequately reflected in the Action Plan. The meeting is part of a series of meetings and consultations that took place to develop the 10-Year Action Plan of the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade; these meetings and consultations are taking place in order to identify existing and potential areas for greater cooperation and dialogue between all actors of the African human rights system.

During the Opening Ceremony, speaking on behalf of the Director of Women, Gender and Development Directorate of the AUC, Mrs. Aissatou Traore-Ambrosetti, Program Officer reiterated the need to give more attention to the ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. She highlighted the importnace of mainstreaming gender issues in the Action Plan.

Mrs. Nwanne Vwede-Obahor, Regional Reprsentaive of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Eastern Africa Regional Office, commended the Department of Political Affaris for organizaing the timely and important Consultation. She futher reiterated the committement of the OHCHR to support the process of the development of the 10-year Action Plan. Mrs. Vwede-Obahor concluded by calling on the grass-root women organizations to be part of the implementation porcess of the 10-Year Action Plan.

In her address, H.E. Mrs Minata Samate Cessouma, Commissioner for Political Affairs, whose statement was delivered by Mr. Mbari Calixte Aristide, Head of DGHRE Division, Department of Political Affairs, said that the Assembly of Heads of State and Government held in Kigali, Rwanda, in June 2016, declared the next 10 years as “the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade in Africa”. Mr Mbari stated that the declaration of the Decade provides an opportunity for the entire continent to take stock of the human rights trajectory on the continent and plan further for enhanced protection and promotion of human and peoples’ rights in Africa. He also stated that the Department of Political Affairs, in cooperation with all African Human Rights Organs and Bodies, is actively coordinating the development of the 10-Year Action Plan of the Decade, which will be launched in July of this year.

Mr. Mbari indicated that the 10-Year Action Plan is expected to further enhance the implementation of the African Human Rights Instruments and strengthen the function of the its Mechanisms, while inculcating a culture of human rights on the continent. He thanked the Government and the People of the Republic of Burkina Faso for hosting this meeting and for supporting the human rights agenda of the African Union.

Declaring the meeting open, Mr. Ganou Oumarou, Director-General of Regional Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso addressed the Opening Ceremony on behalf of the Government. He thanked the African Union for bringing the meeting to Ouagadougou. He also indicated that Burkina Faso is a ratifying party to many international and continental human rights treaties, norms and standards. The representative of the government of Burkina Faso declared the meeting opened and requested the participants to issue a declaration after the Ouagadougou Gender and Youth consultation to justify their participation in the process of developing and validating the 10-Year Action Plan and to reiterate the gender-mainstreaming aspect of the Plan.

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Mr. Yusuf Muhammed
Department of Political Affairs
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