Hard News on Committee Session #1

WORLD

African Union First Meeting in 2021 : Concerning The Peace Support Operation

(February 27, 2021, African Union Meeting)

By Huspidiatul Anwar Gemadiyah. February 27, 2021

AFRICAN UNION – African Union (AU) has started its meeting on their agenda regarding Peace Support Operation (PSO). The PSO itself has been known as a regional effort of the AU Peace and Security Council to pursue and establish regional security and peace. Consisting of the personnel coming from the member states, it has the authorization for a peacekeeping mandate as well as to authorize a multinational task force on doing its mandate. However, until recent development, the member states' representatives are concerned about the way the AU PSO has been operated.

Funding is one of the most formidable things to be concerned, as well as the other member states perceive during the meeting. A funding and assistance reliance from the foreign donor has become the issue discussed. The debate whether the interdependency towards foreign donors, especially European Union (EU) needs to be justified or not, is still ongoing. This is due to there are several differences from the delegates, for instance, the Egypt representative stated that AU must be able to be financially independent and rely less to the foreign assistance, while on the other hand several of the delegates like Niger and Chad, are not denying towards AU needs towards the foreign assistance as they are justifying it due to many of the AU member states are still below the poverty line.

In accordance with the Article 23 of the AU Constitutive Act, a couple of delegates, are justifying the imposition of sanction, such as the removal of status of the member states and revocation of voting rights could be done towards the member states that has the capability, yet not paying their contribution towards the AU whilst also demanding an assistance from the AU.

The debate is still yet to be done, however, the representatives are agreeing to address several of the matters such as regulation reform, sexual and gender based (SGBV), and the AU coordination with the international entities/organization.