Your Excellency, The Chairperson of the STC on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons;
Excellencies Ambassadors here present;
Distinguished Experts from Various AU Member States;
Distinguished Representatives of International Organizations;
The Director, Department of Social Affairs, AUC;
My Colleagues from the AUC;
Ladies and gentlemen;
All Protocols duly observed.
I am pleased to welcome you to this Third Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in Africa. As is customary, the STC will conduct its business in two segments. We will start with the Experts meeting today and tomorrow. This will be followed by the Ministerial segment on 7-8 November.
Welcome to Addis Ababa, the political capital of our continent and the Headquarters of the African Union. We are particularly pleased and gratified that you honoured our invitation despite your busy schedules.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This Third Ordinary Session of this STC is taking place within an auspicious context. As you will recall, during the 31st Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly held on 1-2 July 2018 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the Heads of States and Government of the African Union adopted Decision AU/Dec.707(XXXI) declaring 2019 as “The Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa”. During the same Summit, the Heads of State and Government appointed H.E. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea, as the Champion for the Theme of the Year. Subsequently, the February 2019 Summit adopted the Declaration (Assembly/AU/Decl.8(XXXII) on the Theme of the Year 2019 identifying key priorities for the implementation of theme. It is this declaration that informed the implementation roadmap for the theme of the year.
Under the stewardship of H.E. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea, as the Champion for the Theme of the Year, a comprehensive action plan has been developed to ensure the implementation of the Declaration of the 2019 AU Assembly (Assembly/AU/Decl.8(XXXII) covering the following key areas (a) the 50th anniversary of the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and the 10th Anniversary of the Kampala Convention; (b) Addressing root causes of forced displacement; (c) Finding durable solutions to forced displacement; (d) Statelessness; (e) Natural Disasters and Climate Change; (f) Education for Forcibly displaced persons; (g) Gender mainstreaming and youth empowerment; (h) Humanitarian financing; (i) global partnership and cooperation; and (j) the African Humanitarian Agency.
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
Agenda 2063-The Africa We Want-sets out a clear vision for our continent namely “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena”. Agenda 2063 resonates well with the 2030 global agenda on sustainable development. Evidently, the seven aspirations of Agenda 2063 and the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) may not be fully realised if the African continent does not address the challenges posed by humanitarian crises and forced displacement. Aspiration 3 of Agenda 2063 envisions “An Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law”. Aspiration 4 envisages ‘A Peaceful and Secure Africa’. Both aspirations 3 & 4 dovetail neatly into the sustainable development goal (SDG) No. 16, which aims to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.
In its efforts to deal with humanitarian crises and forced displacement on the continent, the African Union is armed with an arsenal of robust normative frameworks at its disposal. These include:
• The 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (this year, we will mark the 50th anniversary of this Convention);
• The 2009 AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (this year we will mark the 10th anniversary of this Convention);
• The 50th Solemn Declaration on Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance (2013);
• The 2016 Common African Position on Humanitarian Effectiveness.
It is worth noting that the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention has been ratified by 46 Member States. The 2009 AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons has been ratified by 25 Member States. All those Member States, who have not yet done so, are encouraged to ratify these key AU instruments governing displacement in Africa. All those Member States that have rartified these AU instruments are encouraged to domesticate and implement their provisions and report progress.
The largest proportion of forced displacement is caused by violent conflicts. Much of intra-state violent conflicts continue to ravage Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel Region, the Great Lakes Region etc. Africa is home to more than one-third of global displacement. The continent hosts 17.8 million internally displaced persons, 7.4 million refugees and 712, 000 stateless persons.
The contribution of climate-induced natural disasters to forced displacement cannot be under-estimated. Early in 2019, the Southern Africa region was subjected to climate-induced natural disasters in the form of cyclones Idai and Kenneth with devastating impacts for Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. These cyclones have been classified the worst natural disasters so far to occur in the region. They have claimed more than 1,000 lives in the three countries. Three million people were directly affected by the cyclones and 2, 500 were injured. Food security in the affected countries was adversely affected and infrastructure, including health and educational facilities as well as roads, were destroyed. It is estimated that about USD2 billion is required to reconstruct infrastructure in the three affected countries. Cyclone Kenneth also caused enormous devastation in Comoros leaving about 186 000 people in need of humanitarian assistance.
It will be remiss of me not to highlight two most recent milestones in the implementation of the 2019 AU Theme of the Year. Firstly, on 19 June 2019, during his visit to refugee camps in Ethiopia, H.E. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the AU Champion for the Theme of the Year, announced a donation of USD 50,000 seed money for the construction of a primary school for refugee children in Tsore camp, Asossa. This money has since been disbursed through UNHCR.
Secondly, on 10 September, the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR and the African Union Commission (AUC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an Evacuation Transit Mechanism (ETM) for refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Libya. To date close to 200 refugees from Libya have arrived in Kigali and will be resettled to a third country of their choice. I encourage other AU Member States to emulate this commendable gesture of solidarity demonstrated by both Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea in the spirit of Pan-Africanism. This is a concrete demonstration of African solutions to African problems.
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
This Third Ordinary Session of the STC will deliberate on the following issues over the next two days:
- Briefing on the 2019 theme: Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa
- Briefing on Progress regarding the establishment of the African Humanitarian Agency;
- Briefing on the implementation of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment;
- Consideration of the draft statute for the establishment of the African Center for Migration Studies and Research;
- Examination of the draft statute for the creation of the African Migration Observatory;
- Review of the draft statute for the establishment of the continental operational center for information sharing;
- Consideration of the draft plan of action for the implementation of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration; and
- And the review of the report and the mandate of the Pan-African Forum on Migration (PAFOM).
In conclusion, all the participants are encouraged to actively contribute to the discussion of these topics in order to ensure a rich outcome of this third session of the STC. On behalf of the Commissioners for Political Affairs and Social Affairs, it is my utmost pleasure, once again to welcome to Addis and to this Third Session of the STC on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.
I thank you for your kind attention.
