Parliaments in Africa have traditionally been sidelined with regard to security and peace issues. This article compares the Pan-African Parliament, the parliamentary organ of the African Union, with the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace, better known as the Amani Forum, which started as an informal regional network and later developed more formal structures. The analysis focuses on the role of these two institutions in conflict prevention. While the Amani Forum provides an excellent example of the potential contribution of parliamentary forums to promoting and restoring peace, the Pan-African Parliament has been unable to operate as an effective parliamentary organ in conflict resolution and prevention. The article examines several factors that can explain the contrasting performances of the two institutions: their formal and informal structures; different membership and organizational structures; the density and quality of intra-institutional ties; as well as differences in geographical and thematic focus.
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M.A. Mohammed Salih (ed.), African Parliaments: Between Governance and Government (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
Peter J. Schraeder, African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), p. 95.
See Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds), Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy (Johannesburg: Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa, 2009). For more, generally, on transnational parliamentary diplomacy, see Davor Jančić, ‘Transnational Parliamentarism and Global Governance: The New Practice of Democracy’, in Elaine Fahey (ed.), The Actors of Post-National Rule-making: Contemporary Challenges of European and International Law (London: Routledge, 2015), pp. 113-132. See also a conceptual discussion of parliamentary diplomacy in Stelios Stavridis and Davor Jančić, ‘The Rise of Parliamentary Diplomacy in International Politics’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy vol. 11, nos. 2-3 (2016), pp. 105-120.
Michelle Sieff, ‘Africa: Many Hills to Climb’, World Policy Journal, vol. 25, no. 3 (2008), p. 186.
Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, The Dynamics of Economic and Political Relations Between Africa and Foreign Powers: A Study in International Relations (London: Praeger, 1999), p. 23.
See generally Stephen Gardbaum, ‘The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism’, American Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 49, no. 1 (2001), p. 707.
See Nijzink, Mozaffar and Azevedo, ‘Parliaments and the Enhancement of Democracy on the African Continent’; and Ufiem Maurice Ogbonnaya and Kanayo Ogujiuba, ‘Regional Parliamentary Assemblies in Africa: Challenges of Legitimacy of Authority and Status of Operation’, Journal of Legislative Studies, vol. 21, no. 4 (2015), pp. 553-573.
Odhiambo Owour, ‘The 2007 General Elections in Kenya: Electoral Laws and Processes’, Journal of African Elections, vol. 7, no. 2 (2009), pp. 113-123.
Adopted by virtue of Resolution no. 1202 (1999) in November 1999, as amended by Resolution no. 1911 (2012), available online at www.assembly.coe.int/RulesofProcedure/PDF/Rules2013.A5.pdf.
See also Tsegaye Demeke, ‘The New Pan-African Parliament: Prospects and Challenges in View of the Experience of the European Parliament’, African Human Rights Law Journal, vol. 4, no. 1 (2004), pp. 53-73.
See Julian Navarro, ‘The Creation and Transformation of Regional Parliamentary Assemblies: Lessons from the Pan-African Parliament’, Journal of Legislative Studies, vol. 16, no. 2 (2010), pp. 195-214. See more generally Lorenzo Fioramonti and Frank Mattheis, ‘Is Africa Really Following Europe? An Integrated Framework for Comparative Regionalism’, Journal of Common Market Studies (forthcoming 2016).
Rigobert Minani Bihuzo, ‘Unfinished Business: A Framework for Peace in the Great Lakes’, Africa Security Brief, no. 12 (July 2012), p. 12.
Juliana Kantengwa, ‘Elections and Stability in the Great Lakes Region: Evaluating 2006 and 2007 Electoral Processes in the Region’, Peace and Conflict Management Review, vol. 1, no. 2 (2008), p. 2.
Johnston, ‘Regional Parliamentary Peacebuilding and Engagement with International Organizations’, p. 206.
Frans Weisglas and Gonnie de Boer, ‘Parliamentary Diplomacy’, Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 2, no. 1 (2007), pp. 93-98.
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Parliaments in Africa have traditionally been sidelined with regard to security and peace issues. This article compares the Pan-African Parliament, the parliamentary organ of the African Union, with the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace, better known as the Amani Forum, which started as an informal regional network and later developed more formal structures. The analysis focuses on the role of these two institutions in conflict prevention. While the Amani Forum provides an excellent example of the potential contribution of parliamentary forums to promoting and restoring peace, the Pan-African Parliament has been unable to operate as an effective parliamentary organ in conflict resolution and prevention. The article examines several factors that can explain the contrasting performances of the two institutions: their formal and informal structures; different membership and organizational structures; the density and quality of intra-institutional ties; as well as differences in geographical and thematic focus.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 423 | 74 | 6 |
Full Text Views | 194 | 4 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 45 | 14 | 0 |