APS : Sunday, 31 January 2016
ADDIS-ABABA (Ethiopia)- The 26th African Union Summit, which proceedings wrapped up Sunday in Addis-Ababa was an opportunity for Algeria to reaffirm once again the cardinal principles of its diplomacy since independence in 1962.
The Algerian diplomacy, deployed on all fronts in the Ethiopian capital, helped highlight the positions Algeria has always defended, regarding the issues of peace and security, development and human rights.
For the crises and conflicts that plague the continent, Algeria has always rejected the solution of military interventions and privileged the peaceful political settlement through dialogue and consultation.
It strived to make its voice heard by the African leaders, saying that all conflicts can be resolved at the negotiating table, away from destructive wars.
This is especially the case of Libya as Algeria worked, from the beginning of the crisis, to bring together the different parties to the conflict. It also welcomed the signing of the political agreement allowing the formation of a national unity government and the establishment of democratic institutions, stressing this agreement is the only way to solution.
The African leaders’ political determination to combat terrorism has been strongly supported by Algeria which has offered its experience in the fight against this phenomenon alien to Muslim values.
Among the actions recommended in this regard, stress was put on the importance of establishing a structural system of prevention and early warning in order to enhance the effectiveness of African cooperation as part of the UN overall strategy in the fight against terrorism.
Algeria has also emphasized the importance of intense diplomatic mobilization at the international level for the criminalization of ransom payment and the adoption of legal mandatory instrument for the drying up of terrorism financing sources.
Algeria has also called for capacity building of the African Center for Studies and Research on Terrorism, which headquarters is based in Algiers.
Human rights : Significant progress
Regarding the human rights, main theme of the Addis Ababa Summit, Algeria highlighted the “significant” progress in this field, notably in the rights of women.
This is an important achievement which will be further reinforced as part of the new Revision of the Constitution, which gives more democratic spaces and establishes performing governance.
The revision also strengthens the third generation rights such as the right to culture, environment, freedom of enterprise and academic freedoms and the possibility the litigant citizen to seize the Constitutional Council to invoke a legal decision, likely to prejudice his rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
The creation of the high independent body on elections monitoring and the establishment of a National Council for Human reflects the will of the State to place human dignity at the center of its concerns and to make it a top priority.
In the chapter of the UN reform, Algeria engaged for an African common stance it endeavors to “promote in all the bilateral and multilateral forums.”
Considering this issue as a “strategic importance”, Algeria considers that this reform calls for a “unified and coordinated action” of the AU to promote the “legitimate demands” of Africa to get a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
As regards the issue of climate change, Algeria voted for “strengthened and united” international cooperation, while being “convinced” that the Paris agreement “addresses the main concerns of all parties in a fair, balanced and consistent manner with the principles of the Durban Convention.”
