The African Union Commission’s Peace Support Operations Division (AUC PSOD) held a technical working session to discuss the draft AU Strategic Framework for Compliance and Accountability in Peace Support Operations (PSOs). The session took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 27 February to 01 March 2023.
Experienced PSO practitioners, academics and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) experts studied, analysed and made inputs to the draft Compliance and Accountability Framework, which is intended to be a tool that brings together the legal and policy instruments, roles and responsibilities as well as the approaches and mechanisms adopted by the AU in the area of Compliance and Accountability to IHL, IHRL and conduct and discipline standards in PSOs. Programme Officers, Mr. Wandile Langa and Ms. Rumbidzaishe Matambo represented ACCORD during the hybrid working session.
In order to ensure that all of its missions comply with international and regional IHRL instruments and applicable IHL provisions, as well as internationally accepted norms of conduct and discipline, the AUC has been integrating international norms and standards into its policies, guidelines and relevant Standard Operating Procedures. This includes mainstreaming compliance related issues into mission planning and management processes; the establishment of compliance and accountability mechanisms as well as enhancing human resource capacity in mission structures to facilitate the effective functioning of compliance and accountability mechanisms.
Through the Training for Peace (TfP) Programme, ACCORD has been instrumental in supporting the AUC with the development of tools and the enhancement of Compliance and Accountability in AU PSOs. The TfP Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
