Effective Reform of AU PSC to Achieve Peace in Africa

Morocco, firmly convinced that the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has the capacity to effectively contribute to the resolution of the multiple and increasingly complex security challenges facing Africa today, calls for an effective reform of the Council to achieve peace in Africa, said, Monday in New York, minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Nasser Bourita.

 "To transform this potential into action and foster the emergence of a strong and effective Council capable of designing an organizational architecture with greater flexibility, and promoting a new governance of peace and security issues, it is imperative to carry out effective reform of the PSC, the main pillar of the African Peace and Security Architecture which holds important elements in addressing the factors of instability in the African continent," noted Bourita, who was speaking at a ministerial debate of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, under the theme "The state of peace and security on the continent and measures taken to promote African solutions to African problems".

"The diagnosis of the security situation in our continent is unambiguous. Despite the progress made, much remains to be done to achieve peace in Africa, but we still have the potential and the necessary assets to raise our continent to the rank of the greatest on the international scene," he said.

In this regard, the minister referred to the report of Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame, who called for a complete reform of the PSC, through a review of the members of the body, a strengthening of working methods and a greater role for member States, which should have the leadership in the governance of this Council.

"Our organization urgently needs to ensure coherence between its bodies, and mainly the relationship between the African Union Commission and the PSC, hence the importance of giving a new impetus to the institution, which would amount to rationalizing the use of its resources, neutralizing structural shortcomings and promoting decision-making autonomy to enhance the transparency of its activities,” Bourita pointed out.

The African Union's main roadmap on practical steps to "Silence Arms in Africa by 2020", he went on to say, "commits us to achieving the goal of a conflict-free continent, to making peace a reality for all peoples, to riding Africa of wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, humanitarian disasters as well as violent conflicts and to preventing genocide".

For the minister, this monumental task requires simultaneous actions in the interrelated areas of peace, security, governance, human rights and development, recalling that their implementation is nevertheless a challenge for the African Union Commission, as the actions undertaken by the latter remain inconsistent.

To ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the roadmap, he underlined, Morocco emphasizes the need to consolidate close cooperation at the transnational, subregional, regional and international levels between the police, customs, intelligence and border control services, in the identification of firearms and the investigation of transnational trafficking in small arms and light weapons as well as their use for criminal purposes, facilitate the flow between borders and promote the sharing of information and expertise on the flow of illicit weapons, with a view to establishing a common African platform to facilitate data exchange.

In addition, Bourita stressed that Morocco will continue to work to strengthen transparency and improve the working methods of the PSC by making available to this body its rich experience in peacekeeping operations, peacebuilding, the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.