By: Mogomotsi Magome

Stefan Gilbert promotes awareness of AU charter

THE AFRICAN continent has come under criticism for the unconstitutional changes of power that have often occurred on the continent for decades.
 
As an initiative to promote democracy and governance on the continent, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance in 2007.

The charter speaks strongly on unconstitutional changes of power and the sanctions that may be imposed on the transgressing countries.

Stefan Gilbert, a gover nance specialist at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), has been involved in initiatives to promote and raise awareness on the continent about the charter, and there have been mixed reactions.

He does admit, however, that the implementation of the charter will be a challenge for the AU.

“We need to accept that these types of international documents can only be as important as the member states make them to be, because they can just become pieces of paper that everybody signs up to and no action is taken.

“The main question is about how we ensure the implementation of such documents.

“It is often very hard to tell what is sincere in terms of what countries say they will do and what they actually want to do.

“In my view, this charter should serve as a tool that can be used by society to discuss the relationship between governments and the people,” said Gilbert.

He said it should raise debate and discussions on the values that should govern the way African people organise themselves.

Gilbert believes people should familiarise themselves with the contents of the charter and hold their governments accountable.

“Sometimes you even get people in government who are not aware of the charter, let alone people on the ground, because not everybody knows what happens at the level of the African Union,” he said.

However, having travelled across many countries to raise awareness and promote the charter, Gilbert has also received positive feedback.
“Where we have gone and actually raised issues about the charter, there is a lot of receptiveness and excitement and it is something that people want to talk about,” he said.

Another move that seeks to make the charter accessible to communities is the translation of its contents into indigenous languages.

Idasa is one of the few organisations on the continent that are doing work to promote the charter, but there have been challenges with resources to broadly embark on the work.

“The AU itself is supposed to promote this charter but because they are under-staffed and underresourced, they are not able to do so,” he said.

“This is why it is important that we need an active civil society that can help to promote the charter and therefore deepen democracy on the continent.

“As Idasa we have done, among other things, conferences and seminars on the charter, but that is simply not enough,” he added.

During negotiations on the charter, there were countries that opposed its contents because it spoke strongly on issues that affected them directly, while others were pushing it strongly because they believe it has potential to improve gover nance on the continent.

“It is known that countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda were resistant towards the charter, but eventually there was consensuses and it was finally adopted by the AU in 2007,” he said.

Though there have been negative events that have derailed the progress of democracy on the continent, like the recent coup in Madagascar, the continuing nonimplementation of the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe and the disputed polls in Sudan, there have been positive signs.

“The recent change from the presidency of Thabo Mbeki in South Africa to that of Jacob Zuma just goes to show that principles of democracy can be respected and implemented on the continent. “This charter should be looked as an African initiative to at promote and entrench democracy.

“It should not even matter what the inter national community thinks, we should own it and use it to develop and implement democracy for our own good and benefit,” added Gilbert.

More information about the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance can be found on both the AU and Idasa websites.

This article first appeared in the Pretoria News, Wednesday, 12th May 2010.