AU endorses new peacekeeping roadmap
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – The African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) has approved a new peacekeeping roadmap, aiming to enhance unity between major actors involved in international peacekeeping operations, including the UN, troop contributing states and the conflict-affected nations.
The new political roadmap, known as the “Cairo Roadmap on Enhancing Peacekeeping Operations: From Mandate to Exit", emphasizes the promotion of political solutions to conflict, protection of civilians, safety and security of peacekeepers and the performance and accountability of all peacekeeping components, the impact of peacekeeping on sustaining peace, partnership as well as conduct.
According to Amani Africa, an Addis Ababa-based policy think-tank, the new political roadmap to dealing with the peace and security challenges in Africa also emphasizes the need to enhance political solution and the importance of political objectives to guide the mandate of peacekeeping missions.
The Cairo Roadmap proposes a ‘quadrilateral consultations’ among the host nations, the UN Security Council, troop/police contributing countries (TCCs) and the UN Secretariat as well as relevant regional bodies when designing a peacekeeping operation in any region of the African continent.
The AU has always demanded a special status in the negotiation process that precedes any peacekeeping mission, arguing the largest contingent of UN peacekeepers were mostly based in Africa.
The PSC held its 955th meeting by exchange of official electronic correspondence on 15 October, 2020, and decided to endorse the Cairo Roadmap. The roadmap aims to advance ongoing UN Peacekeeping operations reform efforts. It hopes to achieve this by presenting concrete and actionable recommendations for the implementation of the UN Secretary General’s Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative, the PSC said in a communiqué issued on Thursday.
The Cairo Roadmap follows talks held at the level of the AU Heads of State and Government, which was followed by the AU Summit endorsing it through the Declaration issued by the 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security (STCDSS).
A series of meetings were held including one held in Cairo, Egypt, which “adopted, in principle, the Cairo Roadmap on Enhancing Peacekeeping Operations.
The Council said the AU has taken note of the fact that Africa has an important stake in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations as the continent hosting the greatest number of Peacekeeping Missions.
African peacekeepers represent the vast majority of UN peacekeepers, according to the Council.
The AU Peace Council paid tribute to all peacekeepers who have lost their lives serving in peacekeeping missions and those currently serving in peacekeeping missions and risking their lives with the aim of achieving peace and security.
Acting under Article 19 of its Protocol, the Council praised all countries which submitted inputs to enhance the Roadmap, which was endorsed by the 33rd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of States and Government, held in Addis Ababa, from 9 to 10 February 2020.
The Council requested AU Member States, including through the Specialized Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security, to remain seized in supporting all efforts aimed at enhancing United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
-0- PANA AO/VAO 22Oct2020
