December 10, 2014 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: In commemoration of the second year anniversary of the entry into force of the Kampala Convention, The Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission in partnership with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Liaison Office with the AU, successfully concluded a two and half day training workshop on National Responsibility to protect IDPs. The training workshop took place in the African Union headquarters from 8th 10th of December 2014.
The workshop intended to aid the popularization of the Kampala convention for better IDP protection, by ensuring that participants Members of Parliament, members from relevant National Ministries and Government offices, humanitarian practitioners and civil society organizations familiarize themselves with the content of the convention and are able to disseminate it with a view to advocate for the ratification and the implementation of the Convention in their respective countries.
The participants representing nine member states of the AU were from Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Kenya, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Uganda, Somalia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe , Sudan and Ethiopia. The theme of the training workshop: National Responsibility to protect IDPs allowed representatives from the different countries to learn from each others experience as well as gave the country teams the opportunity to draft strategies for implementation of the Kampala Convention and share with all present in the last of the workshop. In addition, it also created a platform for experience sharing and discuss the role of the African Union in support of Member States and assistance in the operationalization of the Convention.
The training workshop was officially opened with remarks from H.E. Ambassador Manuel Gonclaves Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique Chair of the PRC SubCommittee for Refugees, Returnees and IDPs together with Ms. Yemisrach Kebede Norwegian Refugee Council’s Resident Representative to the AU. The closing remarks were delivered by Prof. Khabele Matlosa, Director Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission. Dr. Joseph Chilengi, Chair of the DPA cluster of the AU Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) chaired the closing session.
All speakers thanked the African Union, IDMC and NRC for organizing the significant training workshop and appreciated all participants for active and critical participation through out the training. Prof. Matlosa stressed that the Kampala Convention is one of the most important instruments in the AU and that the Department for Political Affairs would work to ensure the ratification of the convention. The objective is now to have universal ratification of the Convention.
Media Contact:
Michel Nshimba
Political Officer Department of Political Affairs, AUC +251 912646116
nshimba@africaunion.org, nshimba@hotmail.com
Yemisrach Kebede
Resident Representative to the AU
Norwegian Refugee Council
yemisrach.kebede@nrc.no
