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Meeting Of The Follow-Up Committee
Of The Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference
(Khartoum 14-15/1/2009)

 
 
Report Of
The Two General Secretariats Of
The African Parliamentary Union And The
Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union On
The Joint Activities And The Implementation
Of The Resolutions Of The 11th Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference

 
I – Circulation of the documents of the 11th conference:
 After the 11th afro-Arab parliamentary conference which was held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 22 and 23 July, 2007 concluded its work, the two general secretariats of the two unions printed the final communiqué of the conference in English, French and Arabic and sent it to all the member parliaments in the two unions. Copies of this communiqué were also sent to the Arab League, the African Union and the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva.
A detailed report about the proceedings of the conference and the final communiqué was published in the periodical issued by the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union and copies of the final communiqué were handed to the embassies of Arab and African Countries in the two capitals where the headquarters of the two unions are located.
The final communiqué was also published on the two websites of the two unions. A number of Arab newspapers published news about the meetings of the conference convened in Damascus quoting some excerpts from the final communiqué.
Regarding the resolutions of the conference, the General Secretariat of the African Parliamentary Union submitted a detailed report about them to the conference of the African Parliamentary Union which was convened in Addis Ababa in November 2007, while the African Parliamentary Union conference was held in Kampala, Uganda in November 2008 discussed some topics the final communiqué included.

II – Exchange of participation in the statutory meetings of the two Unions:
The General Secretariat of the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union accepted the invitation extended by the African Parliamentary Union to participate in its work and the meetings of the Executive Committee in Ethiopia and Uganda in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The General Secretariat of the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union also participated in the African Parliamentary Conference on Immigration and development which was organized by the African Parliamentary Union and some International and Arab organizations in Rabat, Morocco in May 2008. this Conference came in line with the Damascus Conference expression of deep concern about the illegal immigration phenomenon amongst African youths where it called for Afro-Arab Europeans cooperation to find a solution to this problem that would focus in particular, on the economic dimension. Similarly, the General Secretariat of the African Parliamentary Union participated in the 49th regular session of the Council of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union convened in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 2007 and in the 13th conference of the Union which was held in Erbeel, Iraq in 2008.
The two General Secretaries of the two Unions exchanged participation in the coordination meetings held by the delegations of the African and Arab groups within the framework of the meetings of the Assemblies of the Inter-parliamentary Union held in Kenya, Switzerland and South Africa.
This exchange of participation in the activities of each has promoted the special relations between the two unions at all levels.

III – Exchange of Documents:
 The period that followed the convening of the 11th Dialogue Conference witnessed an exchange of the statements and documents issued by each union. The General Secretariat of the African Parliamentary Union sent to the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union the documents and statements issued by the statutory meetings of the Union, and the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union , in turn, provided the African counterpart with the final statements of the regular session of its councils and the resolutions of the 13th Conference. The Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union also sent copies of the statements issued on the various events in the Middle East, specially the situations in the Palestinian occupied territories, Iraq, the Holy City of Jerusalem and the statements issued by the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union reflecting the opinion of the Union on the terrorist attacks some Arab Countries have been exposed to during that period.

IV – Coordination of the activities and stands of the Arab and African Parliamentary delegations during the meetings of the Inter-parliamentary Union:
 In accordance with the resolutions of the Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference on the need to achieve cooperation and coordination between the delegations of the two unions in Inter-Parliamentary conferences, the two secretariats have been keen to have consultations with a view to reaching optimal cooperation and coordination regarding the majority of issues usually raised in such conferences as shown in the following instance:
  • At the 116th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union convened in Bali, Indonesia, there was Afro – Arab coordination to support the joint proposal to include an emergency item on “Combating Terrorism”. This Cooperation included consultations between representatives of the two groups in the drafting committee which was entrusted with the task of working out a draft resolution ion this item.

  • At the 118th Assembly, Cape Town, this cooperation manifested itself quite and clear in reaching a joint drafting of the emergency item on the siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.

  • The support of the African Parliamentarians was great and effective at the 118th and 119th Assemblies (Cape Town, Geneva 2008) during the discussion of the application The Palestine National Council submitted to have the full membership status in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The African support has played a remarkable role in the success achieved regarding this application. This has manifested itself in the efforts exerted by the delegation of South Africa who was authorized by the African group to prepare a legal memorandum that would explain the legal background necessary to back and support the Palestinian application. This led to the amendment of the statues of the Inter- Parliamentary Union with a view to paving the way to the Palestine National Council obtain a full-membership status in the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

  • However, there was inadequate coordination at the 119th Assembly on the election of a new president of the IPU, although this weak coordination did not influence the result , for the African candidate (Speaker of the Parliament of Namibia) was elected for this post. In spite of that, reference to this inadequate cooperation between the Arab and African sides is a must.

V. The Annual Financial Contribution to the African Parliamentary Union:
 The Arab Parliamentary Union continued to pay its annual financial contribution agreed upon to the African Parliamentary Union during the past two years.

VI. Preparations for the convening of the 12th Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference:
 A) venue and date of the conference:
During the convening of the 11th Afro-Arab Parliamentary conference in Damascus, the participants welcomed the proposal put forward by the head of the Nigerian delegation to play host for the 12th Conference in the Nigerian capital, Abuja early 2009. the conference entrusted the General Secretariaerian Parliament in order to fix the appropriate date for the convening of this conference. Contacts made with the Nigerian Parliament and the General secretariat of the APU resulted in the agreement to convene this conference in Abuja during the period between 24-26 March 2009.

B) Draft agenda of the 12th Conference:
It was agreed, during the contacts made between the two General Secretariats of the two unions, to submit the draft agenda of the 12th conference to the Follow-up Committee to study it. The draft agenda includes the following items:
  1. Election of the Conference Bureau.

  2. Adoption of the Agenda.

  3. Report of the Follow-up Committee.

  4. Exchange of views on:

    5. A) The political, economic and social situation the world, and the Afro-Arab cooperation.
    B) Evaluation of the march of the Afro-Arab parliamentary Dialogue during 25 years ( 1984 – 2009);
  5. Role of African and Arab Parliaments in protecting the economies of their countries from the negative impacts of the current international economic crisis.

  6. The joint Afro-Arab Parliamentary Symposium on:

    7. " Challenges of Globalization to the national cultures
    of the African and the Arab countries."
  7. Setting up a new Follow-up Committee.

  8. Date and venue of the 13th Conference.

VII. The Afro-Arab Parliamentary Symposium:
 The 11th Conference agreed to organize a joint symposium sponsored by the two Unions on “ Challenges of globalization to national cultures of the African and the Arab countries ”.
However , because the circumstances during the period that followed the 11th Conference were unfavorable and inconvenient, and because of the great importance of the topic of this symposium for both African and Arab counties, the two General Secretariats suggest that work should be continued to organize this symposium during this year in an African or an Arab country at a time that would synchronize with the period of the first meeting of the new Follow-up Committee that would be formed by the 12th Conference to be convened in Abuja.

 
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