KLA Gets Ready for Africa Union Summit
By Lakshmi Gandhi–
Leaders from across the continent will gather in Kampala from July 17-29 for the Africa Union Summit. Officially titled “Maternal, Infant and Child Health: African Youth Call for Action”, the summit will focus on issues like infant mortality, neonatal care, and maternal morbidity. The full agenda of the summit can be found here.
After much speculation earlier this summer, Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir was invited to participate in the gathering. Al-Jazeera reported in June that while the office of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had previously said that Sudan would be represented by other officials, that statement was retracted after angry protests from the Sudanese government. According to Al Jazeera, “all African heads of state have been invited for the July summit except ‘those who were suspended from the AU for specific reasons.’” If al-Bashir does step into Uganda, though, Ugandan officials could arrest al-Bashir, since the Sudanese president is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), to which Uganda is a signatory. Uganda recently hosted an ICC summit last month.
Photo Credit: Martin23230, Wikimedia Commons
Also of significance at the conference: the fact that there are only 5 years left until the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline. The Millennium Development Goals are “eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.” The full list of goals can be found here; many of them have to do with maternal and child health.
“We need to have a very comprehensive and integrated approach to health,” said AU Commissioner for Social Affairs Bience Gawanas, in an interview with the New African. “We are also saying that women and children must come first.”
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