Den Afrikanske Union (AUs) rolle i at skabe fred og sikkerhed

COMMISSIONER SMAÏL CHERGUI
African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security

By the late 1990s, the African continent was the site of more than one third of the two hundred violent conflicts in the world. Of the ten most significant of these in the preceding twenty-five years, an estimated 3.8 – 6.8 million people had lost their lives (Mekenkamp, van Tongeren and van de Veen (eds.), 1999).  

While the extent of this reality continues, a narrow focus on such statistics fuels Afro-pessimism and the stereotyping of ‘Africa’ as a continent of violence and ‘failed states’.

Yet at the same time, as some point out, ‘there is also another Africa, an Africa where people are living in peace and harmony with each other and their neighbours’ (ibid).

Working in recognition of both these dimensions, various efforts continue to be made on the continent at regional, national and community levels, aimed at conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict peace-building.

The African Union – through its African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), which includes the Peace and Security Council (PSC) – remains a key actor in this regard. In this lecture, Commissioner Chergui will reflect on some of the key challenges that confront the AU in its peace and security role in contemporary conflicts in Africa.

SMAÏL CHERGUI is the current African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security. Prior to this, he has held senior diplomatic posts on behalf of the Algerian government in, among other places, Moscow, Geneva and Ethiopia.

From 1997-2004 he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Algeria to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, where he played a major role in negotiating the Algiers Agreement that ended the Eritrean-Ethiopian War.

During the same period he served as the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the Organisation of African Union (OAU), then the African Union (AU) and to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

THOMAS MANDRUP, Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, and Extraordinary Associate Professor at The Security Institute for Global Leadership in Africa, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, will act as discussant for this event.

Yderligere oplysninger hos:

Sarah Louise Kriesz, Student Assistant