Tshisekedi satisfied in putting AU at the service of the people
Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - The president of DR Congo and current chairman of the African Union (AU), Felix Tshisekedi, said he is satisfied to have contributed to putting the African Union (AU) at the service of the people, as he had announced in his speech accepting to assume the rotating chairmanship of the AU last February.
The Congolese head of state said this in his state of the nation address, delivered on Monday before the National Assembly and the Senate meeting in Congress, while maintaining that his action is consistent with the general theme chosen for the year 2021, namely "Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers to build the Africa we want", the arts and culture being indeed the expression of the creativity of our people.
"I have put at the centre of my action, issues related to albinism, gender equality, violence against women and girls, the fight against climate change and the protection of local communities and indigenous peoples," he said.
He said his achievements included the mobilisation of African countries around the next International Colloquium on the Reconstruction of Cultural Assets and the African Renaissance; the holding of the Kinshasa Conference on Gender Equality in Africa and the adoption of the Kinshasa Declaration on Gender Equality; the Kinshasa Conference on Positive Masculinity and the adoption of the African Union Declaration to end violence against women and girls.
He also emphasised that during this year, he carried the voice of Africa at the international level, especially during COVID-19, "to demand for the continent the best conditions to fight against the pandemic and to revive our national economies.
"At the Paris Summit on Financing African Economies in May 2021, I advocated for more funding for Africa and for the continuation and strengthening of mechanisms put in place to relieve African countries that have fallen into debt distress due to the effects of the pandemic.
"At the G20 summit in Rome, on behalf of Africa, I called on the participating countries to fulfil their commitments to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin through substantial funding.
"In the health field, I supported the campaign for the operationalisation of the African Medicines Agency and in the context of the fight against COVID-19, I supported Africa's legitimate ambition to produce vaccines on the continent," he said.
For Félix Tshisekedi, the presidency of the African Union was also an opportunity for the DRC to regain its place in international bodies.
"Indeed, for decades, there was no national policy to position our many experts within international organisations, which was incomprehensible. I therefore decided to change this state of affairs and I am pleased to announce that during the course of this year, a compatriot was elected president of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and another member of the United Nations Commission on International Law.
In addition, a Congolese woman has been appointed to the post of Director of Human Resources at the African Union Commission," he said.
-0- PANA KON/IS/SOC/BBA/VAO 14Dec2021
