Feminist Knowledge | Politics

Presentation by Baleka Mbete, MP, National Assembly, South Africa to a Regional Strategy Meeting on African Women's Political Participation and Gender Mainstreaming in the African Union (AU) and its Specialised Mechanisms

Nairobi, Kenya : 28 October 2003

Introduction

The purpose of this presentation is to share information, ideas and perspectives about the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), but more importantly, to use this as an opportunity to strategise on how best African women can utilise the PAP to advance our status.

Background

The PAP was first provided for in the Abuja Treaty of 1991. It is also provided for in the Constitutive Act of the African Union as one of the nine organs of the AU listed in the Act.

Article 17 of the Constitutive Act created the parliament "In order to ensure the full participation of African peoples in the development and economic integration of the continent . . ." This article then states that the details will be spelt out in the protocol.

Before delving further into an understanding of this organ, I would like to elaborate on recent discussions around it. There are three meetings of African MPs that are important to mention.

In November 2000, the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) convened a meeting of representatives from African Parliaments in Pretoria to discuss the then draft protocol. From there, the amended document was tabled to the meeting of the Heads of States, which adopted the protocol in March 2001. The main reason Africa does not have a parliament now, is that Article 22 of the protocol has taken long to be realised. We need a simple majority of the Member States to ratify the protocol and deposit the instruments before the Assembly convenes the first meeting of the PAP.

A second meeting of African MPs sat in Cape Town just before the Durban Summit of the launch of the AU. Speaker of the South African parliament, Frene Ginwala, was mandated by that meeting to present a report to the Assembly in Durban. In particular, a recommendation was made that a Steering Committee be created to assist the AU (Secretariat), i.e. the Interim Commission towards the creation of the Pan-African Parliament. The Assembly agreed to this. A Steering Committee was subsequently created early in 2003 and is now assisting the newly appointed Commission with preparatory work towards the PAP.

The third meeting took place in Cape Town before the Maputo Summit of 2003. It received reports on ratifications and it urged parliaments to speed up this process. Again, Frene Ginwala was mandated to present a report to the Summit. In particular, the MPs urged members of the executives of Member States to assist in the ratification processes and to ensure instruments of ratification were deposited back in Addis Ababa.

Where We Are Now

The Maputo Summit decided that the Pan-African Parliament must have its inaugural meeting not later than the end of January 2004, bearing in mind that this is dependant on a simple majority of Member States ratifying and depositing. Once this is done, 30 days later, the Pan-African Parliament can exist. Frene Ginwala has informally gathered from fellow speakers that we now have the requisite number of ratifications.

The chairperson of the AU firstly needs to set a date for the inaugural meeting. Parliaments then need to elect their five representatives, at least one of whom must be a woman. Lastly, nomination processes must unfold towards the election of the office bearers of the Pan-African Parliament. These are to be from each of the five regions in Africa. The office bearers will be a President, and four Vice-Presidents. They will form the Bureau of the PAP and will be assisted by a Clerk and two Deputy Clerks. Until the PAP recruits its own staff, it will be administratively supported and serviced by the AU Commission. As soon as the Bureau is elected at the inaugural meeting, it is envisaged that the present Steering Committee will cease to exist.

African women and all progressive Africans must seize the challenge to consider ways in which the Pan-African Parliament can give meaning to the objectives of the AU, especially as far as African women are concerned. We must consider the strategic areas which would be most beneficial to focus on. I will raise some of these areas for your consideration. Before that I would like to briefly deal with the envisaged powers and functions of the PAP.

The Purpose, Powers and Functions of the PAP

First and foremost we must look at the Constitutive Act of the African Union to have a context within which to locate an understanding of the role of the PAP. I wish to highlight two objectives and one principle of the AU in this regard.

Article 3(g) "Promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance." 3(h) "Promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments;"

In Article 4, the Constitutive Act spells out the principles within which the union will function. 4(1) provides for the "Promotion of gender equality".

Secondly, the protocol indicates the powers and functions of the PAP provided for in the Constitutive Act. Although it will ultimately develop into an institution with full legislative powers whose members will be elected by universal adult suffrage, initially the PAP will have consultative and advisory powers. This allows it to discuss any matter it wishes to take a view or position on and to make these views and positions known to the Assembly and to African citizens.

From Articles 11 on "Functions and Powers" and 12 on "Rules and Procedure and Organisation of the Pan-African Parliament", I will highlight just a few. 11(1) says the PAP may "Examine, discuss or express an opinion on any matter, either on its own initiative or at the request of the Assembly or other policy organs and make recommendations it may deem fit relating to, inter alia, 'matters pertaining to respect of human rights, the consolidation of democratic institutions, and, the culture of democracy as well as the promotion of good governance and the rule of law.'

11(2) refers to its budget and the budget of the AU on which it can make recommendations for consideration before its approval by the Assembly.

12(13) provides for the establishment of committees for the proper discharge of the PAP's function in accordance with its Rules of Procedure.

In Article 18, the protocol envisages a close cooperation between the PAP with the Parliaments of the Regional Economic Communities and the National Parliaments through - inter alia - annual consultative fora to "discuss matters of common interest."

Article 11(9) provides room for the PAP to consider and decide on its own work and program. "Perform such other functions as it deems appropriate to achieve the objectives set out in Article 3 of this Protocol."

I would like to turn to the objectives of the PAP bearing in mind Article 11(9) and Article 12(13) regarding the establishment of PAP committees. I wish to propose that the objectives should form the main basis for the structures and program of the PAP. In this respect I highlight the following themes extracted from
Article 3:

a) Human rights and democracy: e.g. ACPHR (African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights / on the Rights of Women in Africa)
b) Good Governance, transparency and accountability in Member States: e.g. APRM (Africa Peer Review Mechanism)
c) Peace, security and stability: e.g. PSC (Peace and Security Council)
d) Collective self-reliance and economic recovery: e.g. NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development)
e) Cooperation among Regional Economic Communities: e.g. RECS (Regional Economic Communities and regional integration)

This is an option for considering how to organise the work of the PAP, especially in terms of an oversight function, which exists even though not explicitly spelt out anywhere. In each of the above themes, the issues of women arise and have to be seen as a standing item for monitoring how the continent is following up on all past agreements and commitments such as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, NEPAD, etc.

Another option is to ensure the PAP maintains contact, monitors and maintains oversight over all AU organs, structures and work. While this might sound ideal it could be too broad and unproductive. As things stand the AU potentially has 17 organs. In addition, there are seven specialised committees. Then you have ten distinct topics listed as areas in which the Executive Council of Foreign Ministers will have deliberations. In addition there are the portfolio areas of focus for the Commission of the AU. Some of these overlap. It seems to me, except for specific reports or matters raised with the PAP, it could be difficult for its committees to be structured to respond to these many other bodies and portfolio areas of the AU. That is why I propose focusing on the provisions of the Protocol for guidance on this complex matter. As time goes by, more committees could be created as the need arises.

In keeping with the position taken by the AU Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in May 2002, I suggest that an office for gender mainstreaming of the PAP be located in the Bureau. This is because this is the highest office in this organ. Through this office contact could also be maintained with and monitoring pursued of other AU gender mainstreaming work throughout the system, e.g, with the Directorate.

Challenges and Opportunities

The first challenge is that women hardly feature in some key bodies of the AU. There is not a single woman Head of State, therefore no woman on the highest structure, the Assembly. There are only two or three women Foreign Affairs Ministers present in the Executive Council, which processes all matters and makes recommendations to the Assembly. I must also mention that the Rules of Procedure of this organ list one of its Powers and Functions in Rule 4(u) to "Ensure the promotion of gender equality in all programs of the Union". We need more women in this body and so more women Ministers of Foreign Affairs. We do have an alternative to use Rule 2, which creates the possibility for Governments or Member States to duly accredit any other Minister to the Executive Council. This is something to be carefully considered if women find that some issues could be more sensitively handled by other ministers, especially those charged with responsibility for the portfolio of "women's affairs". Offices of Heads of States would have to be lobbied in this regard.

Secondly, I want to highlight some concerns listed in the Maputo Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming and the Effective Participation of Women in the African Union:

The "Women, Gender and Development Directorate is severely under-resourced". Usually the resources given or denied to any structure will determine its success or failure. This is a matter that, in looking at the AU budget, the PAP must take on board and recommend corrective measures to the Assembly. The other important matter to be scrutinised is the brief of the Directorate. I read somewhere that the directorate services or seeks to service all AU organs. I am not sure what this means. The question that arises is whether it should be servicing or whether it should monitor and make recommendations to the AU Commission about gender mainstreaming in AU structures. Perhaps this is something in which my comments are based on ignorance.

Another concern raised in Maputo surrounds the PAP Protocol providing for at least one woman in each of the delegations of five. The Protocol provides a procedure for amendments and there is no reason why we cannot lobby for such as one of the first activities in the PAP. I do however wish to emphasise that there is nothing to stop African Parliaments from sending two or three women when they elect the delegates. Women in civil society in all the countries and women parliamentarians must lobby for this. In some instances, past commitments must be used to leverage women's positions in this regard. For example, in the SADC countries, we must invoke the SADC Declaration signed and approved by SADC Heads of States or Governments on 8 September 1997, committing themselves and SADC to the target of 30% women as a minimum in decision-making structures. The delegations to the PAP are an opportunity to realise this commitment by having at least two women. In South Africa, the National Assembly adopted a resolution to send three women to the PAP.

Moving to more of the opportunities, I first suggest we look at the workings of the AU and the need for ongoing networking, consultation and strategising. An understanding of the functioning of these structures and information about the latest developments in the unfolding establishment of the AU organs is critical for this. For instance, it is important for us to know that in keeping with the Durban decision, Africa has made history by appointing five women out of the 10 Commissioners, who will drive AU policy implementation. A woman Commissioner, Mrs Julia Joyner (Political Affairs) is responsible for the Pan-African Parliament. Let us remember that these women will need our support to succeed for all of us.

The second opportunity - apart from the delegations already mentioned above - is the location of women in strategic positions in the PAP structures. Women must consider a mechanism to ensure that one or two of the members of the Bureau are women. At least one of the three Clerks must be a woman. We have to lobby the AU Commission - especially Mrs Joyner - to pursue this approach in their preparatory work. More specifically, this will have to be integrated into the guidelines, which will be issued by the Commission to help Parliaments in their own activities towards the inaugural meeting, possibly in January 2004.

When the PAP recruits staff for its own permanent secretariat, women must not only be junior secretaries, cooks and cleaners, they must also be among the senior managers of the staff of the PAP. More details on this have to be looked at once the PAP exists and has determined its administrative needs.

In overseeing the progress of Africa in addressing the plight of women as spelt out in numerous policy documents, the PAP should work closely with the Regional Economic Community parliaments or parliamentary fora. This would mean that this could be a standing item on the agenda of the annual consultative fora bringing the PAP together with National Parliaments.

Conclusion

I trust that although the presentation shows that we still have a lot of work to do, it also says that if we work together we can turn our challenges into opportunities to realise women's emancipation and a better life for African women. Leaders in civil society, business and professional bodies, politics at local, national and continental levels, must work tirelessly to deliver a better continent through the AU and Pan-African Parliament. I believe that these strategising sessions are critical for us to continue to share information and insights, but more importantly, to contribute to the development of our continent.

I congratulate the organisers for this conference. Keep up the good work!