Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 03 October 2014 - The Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Peace and Security of the African Union (AU) represented by the Peace Support Operations Division (PSOD) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) jointly organised a three-day workshop to discuss cooperation on human rights in peace operations. The main objective of this meeting was to discuss and identify areas where the OHCHR and AU Commission can strengthen institutional collaboration in the area of human rights in peace operations in Africa with a view to developing concrete actions to implement such collaboration.
Participants were drawn from of the human rights presences of AU and UN peace operations such as AMISOM, MISCA, MINUSMA, MINUSCA, UNSOM and UNAMID; the UN Office to the African Union (UNOAU), African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Regional Economic Communities and various academic think tanks and institutions. Representatives of the delegations of the European Union, United Kingdom and United States of America to the African Union were also present.
This consultative meeting is premised on the ongoing partnership between the AU and the UN guided by formal cooperation agreements such as the UN-AU Ten-year Capacity-Building Programme (TYCBP), the Joint Taskforce Framework (JTF) on cooperation between the AU and the UN and the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the AU Commission Chairperson and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In addition, cooperation in the area of human rights in the deployment of peace support operations has become important, given the increasing deployment of human rights observers as part of AU high intensity operations as practiced in Mali and the Central African Republic.
The meeting discussed the structure, functions and pattern of deployment of human rights presences in AU and UN peace operations in order to draw lessons and identify areas of collaboration where both institutions have deployed human rights components in the same context. The meeting made recommendations on possible areas of collaboration which will be captured in an outcome document.
