Addis Ababa, 9 June 2015 (WIC) – The African Union Summit opened in Pretoria on July 7, 2015 with a two day meeting of the 30th ordinary Session of the AU’s Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC).
According to MoFA, this will be followed by the 27th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council (of Foreign Ministers) Wednesday to Friday (June 10-12). The 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, the Summit of Heads of State and Government will be held on June 14 and 15, 2015.
The theme is the “The Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063,” and the Summit is focusing on issues concerning women empowerment and the continent’s long-term development.
PRC Chairperson, Ambassador Albert Ranganai Chimbindi, who is also Zimbabwean ambassador to Ethiopia, told the PRC that the theme was pertinent and opportune.
He said “We must remember that women constitute more than half of the African Union population, and that they make up 75 percent of our agricultural workforce.”
He said the time had come for Africa to recognize women as equal to men, and he emphasized this would result in increased economic development.
Ambassador Chimbindi challenged African countries to implement the many decisions already taken by the continent to attain gender equality, including the protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the
Rights of Women in Africa, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the Fund for African Women and the African Women’s Decade.
The Deputy Chair of the AU Commission, Erastus Mwencha, outlined the core agenda of the 25th AU summit. This included improving Africa’s economy, infrastructure development, poverty, peace and security.
He said “we will be looking at reports on the challenges in Burundi, South Sudan and others and said the Summit would also take a close look at the rise of terrorist incidents in countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Somalia, adding that “we now have the new challenges of terrorism, radicalization and extremism.”