Study Guide 2015 28 – 31 May AFRICAN UNION Chair:Joshua Adama CO-Chair: Fria Abdelkarim http://pimun.epanu.org/ Disclaimer and additional information: The guides supplied in no way represent conclusive research. Thus In the interest of a fruitful debate all delegates are invited to look to the sources for further research supplied in the guides, just like own sources. Further all information placed in the guides was gathered by the respective Dais teams. In the light of this, PIMUN 2015 renounces all responsibility for the content of these “study guides”. The deadline for the Position Papers is the 22th of May 23:59 (UTC+01:00). If submitted after this date the Position Paper will NOT be eligible for Position Paper awards. In order to make sure a Position Paper will be considered the document name should be: “Country Name”_”committee abbreviation as seen on the Study Guides”_PositionPaper_PIMUN2015 An example would be: FRANCE_UNESCO_POSITIONPAPER_PIMUN2015 The Position Papers can be uploaded to: http://pimun.epanu.org/ For further questions please contact: [email protected] Table of Contents INTRODUCTION OF THE DIAS .............................................................................................. 1 HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN UNION (AU) ........................................................................... 3 AGENDA 1 .................................................................................................................................... 5 Crisis Prevention, Crisis Management and the Post-Crisis Programmes: Three Steps for a Stable Continent. ............................................................................................................................ 5 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 5 II. Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 6 III. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 9 AGENDA 2 .................................................................................................................................. 11 ADDRESSING THE THREAT OF BOKO HARAM AND SIMILAR GROUPS, AND FINDING WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY COUNTERACT THEM. ........................................ 11 I. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 11 II. Discussion.......................................................................................................................... 12 III. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 15 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 16 INTRODUCTION OF THE DIAS CHAIR Distinguished Delegates, I’m Adama Joshua Ugbede, a post graduate student from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State Nigeria concentrating in Real Estate Investment and Finance. It is my pleasure to welcome you as the Chairman, African Union Committee to the 4th session of the Paris International Model United Nations. I have an unflinching passion for civic leadership, economic development, international relations and diplomacy. I enjoy talking, reading and travelling. My exposure in the MUNs has not being exceptionally long, but I have made unique strides, which empowers me to offer unique contributions in making the 4th session of the Paris International Model United Nations, a great success. The topics before the Committee revolve around evolving trends that will have an enormous impact on the planet as it relates to our collective future. It is my earnest hope that the coherence of our ideas (as we share them), and the resourcefulness of our commitments (as we make necessary sacrifices), in the preparations and subsequently, the deliberations at PIMUN 2015, consolidates on the impact past generations have made; in ensuring the world attains the status of “a better place for Man to live in”, as we consciously and deliberately delve into the prospects of setting the path for the Sustainable Developmental Goals. I can’t wait to see you guys come May in Paris for an amazingly memorable conference. Best Regards Joshua 1 Co-CHAIR Hello, I am Abdelkarim Friaa from Tunisia; I am currently in my second year in Master program: Terrorism, Organized crime and Security at the University of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. This Master program is conceived with the idea to provide graduate university students, including reporters and journalists, private enterprises as well as CSOs necessary preparation for professional dealing with European and international policies, good government and strategic management in domain of security, especially in prevention and combating terrorism and organized crime. I am participating in Program of scholarship “The world in Serbia” that invited international students from the movement non-aligned countries. I am sure that working with PIMUN 2015 will create a meeting space for international participants that care about the World around them. I strongly believe this is an enriching experience. Best Reagdrs 2 HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN UNION (AU) Africa has a long history and it is the unique product of the social and cultural attitudes of Africans. The advent of the AU is described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent. Today, the African Union (AU) is an entity that continues to work for integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multi-faceted social, economic, and political challenges. The historical foundations of the African Union originated in the Union of African States, a short lasting union of three (3) West African States1. In subsequent attempts to unite Africa, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established on May 25, 1963; it remained the collective voice for the continent until 2002. On July 9, 2002, in Durban, South Africa, the African Union was launched by its first president, Thabo Mbeki. The African Union was formed in hopes of further improving the objectives to secure Africa’s democracy, human rights, sustainable economy, and bringing an end to the intra-conflict that has plagued the continent. The Assembly of the African Union, the chief decision-making body within the AU, consists of the Heads of State or Government of Member States. While the Assembly is gradually devolving some of its decision-making to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the African Union is also composed of a number of official bodies that have an important say in critical issues. Such bodies like the Executive Council; Peace & Security Council; Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOC); Specialized Technical Committees; and Human Rights Institutions, all play a prominent role addressing pressing challenges. Currently, three documents structure the work of the AU: the Vision of the African Union and the Mission of the African Union Commission, the 2004-2007 Strategic Framework of the African Union Commission, and the Action Plans of the various Departments of the Commission. Included are for instance twenty three (23) Priority Programs, divided into six “Action Areas” where the continent will need to coordinate and integrate to address health, political, economic and ecological issues. They include: (1)Shared Vision (2)Peace, Governance and Human Security (3)Economic Integration (4)Integration Infrastructure (5)Social Development, and (6)Culture. In other policy areas, the African Union also faces tremendous organizational and financial barriers, coupled with additional challenges of endemic poverty and civil conflict among many of 3 its Member States, but the continent has continuously proven that it has what it takes in terms of human and material resources to surmount these challenges. It took many years for the similar regional institutions in Europe, Asia, and Latin America to establish themselves, and the AU must establish ingenuity to keep moving forward, at the same time ensuring that it enjoys the support of its respective member states. It is imperative that Member States of the AU continue building on these measures to achieve their vision of a unified continent, with periods of peace and prosperity. 4 AGENDA 1 Crisis Prevention, Crisis Management and the Post-Crisis Programmes: Three Steps for a Stable Continent. I. Introduction This topic is an issue that raises crucial concerns. It is an effort to guide in the process of acquiring possible answers that would arise from lessons learnt from a crisis-torn continent. While we look forward to resolving these fundamental questions in plenary, it is noteworthy to begin by establishing the fact that there is a recurring decimal in the life of man, namely, conflict. These rustic trends does not just describe events which occur in a particular geography, rather, it bears testimony to the actual nature and character of man and his overall existence. Hence, it is right to say, crisis is a human condition and that crisis will always occur. But then, the management of crisis is crucial because it is the application of man's rational ability, to salvaging his society from the Hobbesian analogy; that in the state of nature "life is brutish, short and nasty1". We ought not to live in the state of nature, hence the need to manage the destructive influence of the "state of Nature"1. Avoidable bloody conflicts are as old as human and seem to be interpreted (in certain quarters) that there are the traditions that have evolved with man. It is expected that while man has succeeded (and is succeeding) in the handling of tools which fosters his better living, there should be a corresponding increase in his understanding of the world and the interpretation of it. Hence, a better handling of disagreements which leads to conflicts. While we ponder over the science of crisis management and raise questions sons transfer them, it is imperative that we also raise the question, as to, what the common denominator of African Crisis is and how avoidable these conflicts (which threatens the human and resources of Africa) are. Hence, what is the common integer of African crisis? 5 II. Discussion Northern African countries are struggling to contain the fallout of the Arab Spring, which left behind a dangerous combination of weak governments and available weapons for armed groups to advantage. In Libya terrorism is on the rise and national forces are battling with power-seeking militias who have been causing chaos since Muammar Qaddafi ouster in 2011, and the peace is increasingly fragile with dire economic consequences. Libya appears to be the prospective theater of the next African Civil war. In Egypt the Arab Spring has also left a legacy of extremism. A handful of Islamist groups have announced themselves in the Sinai since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011. But the scope of attacks increased after Egypt’s military booted out the country’s subsequent president, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Morsi, in 2014. Analysts fear that more disaffected supporters of the now-banned Brotherhood may be pushed into terrorist ranks. Meanwhile, Tunisia is struggling to contain its own terrorist factions.2 Armed fighters are taking advantage of instability and porous borders to perpetrate mayhem throughout the Sahel region. In 2014 the French Government intervene in Mali to stem a civil war being waged by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), together with other terrorist and separatist units. That restored reasonable peace to the country, but the peace has not yet been sustained throughout the region. Other groups have spun out of AQIM, including the militia that claimed responsibility for seizing in an international gas facility in Algeria in 2014. Those groups have led grim credence to Qaddafi’s prophecy that if he was toppled, North Africa would descend into holy warfare. “Bin Laden’s people would come to impose ransoms by land and sea,” he said as his rule became increasingly precarious. 2 As this wave of violent conflicts ravages Africa, conventional and unconventional peace processes seem to have been defied; or rather, have been defied by the problems they seek to resolve. But while it is common in some continents that the effective networking of traditional and hybrid peacemaking efforts have largely solve conflicts of this sort, it seems surprisingly different in Africa. 6 Crises Prevention Crises Prevention is a set of measures applied to prevent crises. It means to avert; to foil. These measures could be negotiation, lobbying, mediation and dialogue. But the negotiate what? What is the object of negotiation, lobbying, mediation and dialogue? Is the object mediation et al of economic character, political or social; it the character that determines what how successful a measure would be? For instance a problem of economic character requires some form of review of the distribution of resources and a sense ethics to resolve. The merits of crisis prevention are manifold, but in summary, they prevent the loss of life and property and sustenance of the peace. Crisis Management When strategies are designed so as to help with significant negative event (whether sudden or remote) it could described as crises management. Management actually entails successful handling. Crisis is actually an actuality; the actualization of certain potentialities which occur as a result of an unpredictable event or as a foreseeable/an unforeseeable consequence. The field of crisis management is generally considered to have originated with Johnson & Johnson's handling of a situation in 1982, when cyanide-laced Tylenol killed seven people in the Chicago area. The company immediately recalled all Tylenol capsules in the country and offered free product in tamper-proof packaging. As a result of the company's swift and effective response, the effect to shareholders was minimized and the brand recovered and flourished. Hence, crisis management is a measure taken to prevent further damage.3 Post-Crisis Programmes There is crisis in Darfur; the two-year-old violence continues. The over 100,000 people who have lost their lives, and the over 2.5 million who have lost their homes since the war began in 2003, is the consequence. Sudanese, regional and international peace processes have stalled, and the big question is WHY? Why must they not restart with parallel initiatives so as to that take into better account all of Darfur’s communities and armed groups; the victims and the villains? 7 The election in Burundi brings us to a moment of truth; the ever-decreasing likelihood of a free and fair presidential election is in growing conflict with a popular desire for change in Burundi. To safeguard the Arusha Principles, agreed upon in 2000, to end Burundi’s civil war, President Nkurunziza and opposition leader must lead others to return to the path of democracy and dialogue, so as to secure both the injured peoples and communities, as well as the armed personnel. The security sector reform in Guinea-Bissau gives us an opportunity that ought not to be missed. A legitimate civilian government, economic improvement and an army that has lost credibility are an opportunity for Guinea-Bissau to put things right. Regional and international partners meeting in Brussels of 25th March should make frantic commitment to finance security sector reforms so as to help it move beyond its history of military coups and the likes. In Nigeria, a trend has been defeated; an African incumbent concedes defeat to an opposition even before the electoral umpire officially announces poll results. That President Goodluck Jonathan phones the presidential flag bearer of the opposition, Muhammadu Buhari, to congratulate him on his electoral victory, is an action that is not only novel in African politics but a panacea to forestalling most of the threat to life, property and the peace that has characterized the African continent, especially intensities eras. The Prospects for a National Dialogue in Sudan stares us all in the face; President Bashir’s promise of national dialogue seems to be failing because it is handled in hands of poor political will, factional maneuvering, and looming elections. Although the threat of economic and political crisis has subsided, renewed commitment to substantive, structured, broad-based dialogue is lacking. Whether Sudan will escape the cycle of war and humanitarian crisis is a question the United Nations, the African Union and the people of Sudan can answer. The conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan are increasingly merged because a halting drift toward a Uganda-Sudan proxy war on the Sudan-South Sudan border is requiring better coordination by regional organizations and needing more engagement by influential external powers, notably China and the United States. A UNimposed arms embargo, improved border monitoring, and a UN panel of experts mandated to study the funding of South Sudan’s war is what is critically needed. 8 In Burkina Faso, we have a case of nine months duration to complete the democratic change the country requires. Three months after Blaise Compaore’s ouster, Burkina Faso’s transition is moving forward, but in an uncertain context. The provisional government, with the help of its international partners, ought to initiate urgent reforms and ensure the October 2015 elections allows for peaceful democratic change. 4 Congo is poised to ending a status quo as a new consensus and strategy is urgently in need to tackle the numerous, brutal armed groups in its eastern region and to save the February 2013 Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework (PSCF) in the Great Lakes region. Until this sees the light of day, the future of a peaceful Congo is in sincere doubt. Guinea has another emergency in its hand; namely, organizing elections. As she approaches the second presidential election in its history the circumstances are difficult. But then, it is expedient that the government convenes a serious dialogue with the opposition, so as to forestall the risks of electoral violence and the exacerbation of ethnic divisions. III. CONCLUSION The fate of Africa lies in how best her people manage her crisis (most of which begins from her kitchen), how they create partnerships to rebuild the walls of the wastelands and how deeply entrenched a prevailing philosophy of never seeing solutions (to her problems) in fighting. Until Africans see everything wrong in fighting, Africa may never stand. 9 10 AGENDA 2 ADDRESSING THE THREAT OF BOKO HARAM AND SIMILAR GROUPS, AND FINDING WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY COUNTERACT THEM. I. INTRODUCTION Critical, at this moment, is the question of whether the Boko Haram insurgency is actually interminable is a “HOW” or “WHY”. Another question arises; what hope is left for a continent plagued with a network of insurgency. Africa is evidently arising as an undisputed frontier for extremism as the Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabab in Somalia now rank among the most dangerous insurgent groups in the world. Boko Haram is the world’s deadliest insurgency by having the largest fatality of approximately 24 people per assault (versus 2 in Iraq). 1 This fatality has spilled-over into neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic. Al-Shabab, on the other hand, has wrecked great havoc within and without the Somalian borders, with Kenya bearing the hardest brunt for being a neighbor; the bloody massacre of Christian students of Garissa University College and the siege on Westgate Mall in Nairobi are few of a series of attacks the group has carried out on Kenya. A question again arises; how did Africa get to this stage, and how can she harness this impending treat and effectively counter it? 11 II. DISCUSSION On the African continent, we are experiencing a Cold War between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which spilling over to Somalia, is causing acute suffering on both the most and less vulnerable (where Eritrea is supporting the jihadist group, al Shabaab, in its fight against the Ethiopian-backed government in Mogadishu); in Sudan and South Sudan, insurgencies have been fuelled in each other’s kitchen, with both parties laying claims to objects and issues which can be resolved without bloodshed if, and only if, the fears of vested interests are shelved; the Sudanese Janjaweed militias have fought in eastern Chad and in the Central African Republic claiming thousands of lives, and disrupting the Peace efforts; in Uganda, The Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony has disturbed the Museveni-led state efforts to protect life and property, and has wreaked substantive havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan; in Nigeria, the Boko Haram sect has seriously bloodied thousands of civilians and seem to have defied national Military (but for the recent military offense against it); in Congo, a Civil War wages and even disturbs Rwanda and Uganda on the broader-sides, claiming human life as if life has become of mundane and animalistic nature, impeding socio-economic activities in the process.2 After two decades of apparent stability, Africa is beginning to shed its reputation as the war-torn continent. Zeroing into Nigeria; it has a history of Islamist sects within its borders. Not all have been violent movements, some existing peacefully in parallel with the state. And not all of Nigeria’s violent sects are Islamist; one such is the Ombatse cult, which clashed with security forces in Nasarawa state in May 2013. Until Boko Haram’s transition to extreme violence, perhaps the most virulent of the radical Islamic movements was the Maitatsine uprising in the 1980s or the Yan Shi’a movement in the 1990s. But all of these movements could be described as international in some respect: their members or ideologies all crossed beyond Nigeria’s northern borders, or they referred to global models of Islamism in Iran or Saudi Arabia.3 Now defined as an international terrorist organization, Boko Haram is no different in this regard. There is a lot of speculation about the sect and its links with foreign jihadists. But it is its splinter group, Ansaru that exhibited much more potential to become Al-Qaeda’s Nigerian affiliate. Unlike al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram has no known connections to Nigeria’s diaspora. This northeastern violent extremist sect has fused itself to external ideological influences and the tools of 12 global communication but, while benefiting from porous borders, it has remained focused on Nigerian targets and has echoes of other African uprisings that grew out of social grievances. It mutated into a fanatically violent terrorist movement with shades of cultist and criminal motivations over a period of years of mishandled responses by government and security forces. A peculiarity of Boko Haram in Nigeria is not its criminality but the sectarian nature of its agenda, which is distinct from the dynamics of resource-driven localized violent conflicts between different ethnic groups in Plateau state, or the ethnic claims of insurgent groups such as the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Based in Nigeria’s semi-arid north-east, Boko Haram does not have access to the economic leverage of oil to pressure the government. It adopted the iconography and some of the tactics of foreign jihadist movements, in particular suicide attacks, which had never before been seen in Nigeria. But while this and the extreme nature of its violence, including against children, is of such significant international concern that more countries are becoming engaged in the security response to the crisis, Boko Haram’s ideology and tactics do not prove sustained international operational connections and coordination. International interests were much more threatened by MEND in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta.3 The Boko Haram Insurgency is one of the many groups that have soaked African soil with the blood of her people. Officially called Jama'atuAhlis Sunna Lidda'AwatiWal-Jihad, it is based in northeast Nigeria, and also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau and has an estimated membership of between 7,000 and 10,000 people. The group initially had links to al-Qaeda, but in 2014 it expressed support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant before pledging formal allegiance to it in March 2015.4 After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram's increasing radicalization led to a violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader, Mohammed Yusuf was executed. Its unexpected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, and progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. It is characterised by its kidnapping (notably that of over 250 schoolgirls from the Chibok community in Borno state in April 2014), anti-women, anti-Christian, anti-education and terrorist stance and has drawn an unprecedented level of 13 international concern. The Nigerian government had established a state of emergency at the beginning of 2012 and a major part of 2013 in the affected areas in its efforts to counter the insurgency, but the region is still marked with an increase in both security force and militant attacks. The Nigerian military proved ineffective in countering the insurgency, hampered by an entrenched culture of official corruption, only until recent times, in the countdown to the 2015 polls. Since mid-2014, the insurgents have been in control of swathes of territory in and around their home state of Borno, estimated at 50,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi) in January 2015, but have not captured the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, where the group was originally based.4 What is paramount is how this militia will be effectively countered. The ethno-religious culture of Nigeria has caused her a variety of blessings and curses. She is caught in a series of ethno-religious conflicts with corresponding devastating human and material losses, since its amalgamation. Nevertheless, the Boko Haram uprising of July 2009 is one of its kind; no insurgency and militancy has hit Nigeria this hard. It is a practical reinforcement by Islamic conservative elements in imposing a variant of Islamic religious ideology on a secular Nigerian state. Nigeria is religiously sensitivity and this character has provided fertile ground for the breeding of the Boko Haram sect. Hence, the ethno-religious cause. Since its disturbance began, it has been established that the sect’s blossoming is also said to have been aided by the prevailing economic dislocation in Nigerian, vis-a-vis the introduction of party politics and politics of anxiety, the associated desperation of politicians for political power, and the ambivalence of some vocal Islamic leaders, who, though they did not actively embark on mutiny, but either did nothing to impede it from fomenting, or only feebly condemned it. These internal factors coupled with growing Islamic fundamentalism around the globe made a highly volatile Nigerian society prone to violence, as evidenced by the Boko Haram uprising.5 Hence, the political-economy cause. The movement remains mysterious, with little evidence to substantiate different allegations about its true agenda. According to the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Goodluck Jonathan, ‘the sect is ideologically linked to Al Qaeda’ and ‘it rejects peaceful coexistence with Christians’.6 14 The facets related to gender, religion and politics are all correct, but they paint an incomplete picture and on their own limit the understanding of a group that has mostly killed Muslims and young men. This incomplete focus also detracts from a contextual understanding of how the movement developed and became increasingly criminalized over a period of years during which civilians have also been killed by security forces. 7 Hence, the task before the Nigerian Government and her people, the United Nations, the African Union and other regional organizations, and local and international Civil Society Organisations, is to devise a means of addressing the political-economy and the ethno-religious constriction of this over 150 million-people West African State. This is the root of the problem; not just in Nigeria, but across Africa. III. CONCLUSION The need to effectively counteract Boko Haram’s violent advance is dire, and the Nigerian democratic transition 2015 is key to this. Since it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between ideologically or grievance-driven Boko Haram attacks, the transition will give us a lead. Ethno-religiously, Nigeria stands on a crossroad, and her choice of which path to take, as a people, determines her future. But then the mystery of the actual motivation of Boko Haram leaves the country in suspense of when all these bloodshed and loss of property will end. Such is to be unravelled to help devise an effective counteraction. Although the April 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok girls is still pending, renewed focus and significant international attention on Nigeria and Boko Haram should intensify, and Nigerians must find a lasting solution to her political, ethno-religious and economic differences so as to uproot the Boko Haram threat, and its likes. Hence the aching question; is the Boko Haram insurgency (and its African likes) actually interminable. If “YES”, HOW? If “NO”, WHY? 15 REFERENCES Introduction to committee 1. African Unification Front, Brief Overview of the History of the African Union: Towards African National Sovereignty, 2002. 2. National Model United Nations,African Union Committee Background Guide 2008. Agenda 1 1. Thomas Hobbes; The Leviathan. 2. Africa's Deadly Insurgencies Ranking high on the Wrong Measures; The Economist, Jul 28th 2014. 3. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/crisis-management. 4. http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/west-africa/burkina-faso/222-burkina-fasonine-months-to-complete-the-transition.aspx Agenda 2 1. Africa's Deadly Insurgencies Ranking high on the Wrong Measures; The Economist, Jul 28th 2014. 2. http://ojifo-raphael.blogspot.com/2014/06/violence-in-africa-and-nigerian_4.html 3. Research Paper Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos Africa Programme; September 2014 Nigeria’s Interminable Insurgency? Addressing the Boko Haram Crisis. 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram 5. Anyadike, Nkechi O; Boko Haram and National Security Challenges in Nigeria; Causes and Solutions-Journal of Economics and Sustainable DevelopmentVol.4, No.5, 2013 6. Office of the Security Adviser, Abuja, 2014. 7. Loimeier, Roman (1997), Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria. 16
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