APO News from Africa:
Official visit to Ghana of Mr. Louis Michel, former European Union (EU) Development Commissioner:
Mr. Louis Michel, former European Union (EU) Development Commissioner and Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, will arrive in Accra on 27 March 2017 for an official visit to Ghana.
He is part of a pool of three high level personalities made up of former members of the European Commission designated by the EU to support the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Neven Mimica, by carrying out targeted outreach activities with key EU partners in view of the preparation for the future of EU-ACP relationship.
Mr. Michel, who is on a West African Regional tour, will arrive from Abidjan on 27 March 2017, departs Accra on 28 March and also visit Dakar and Lomé.
While in the country, Mr. Michel will meet with key Government officials and stakeholders to discuss the renewal of the Cotonou Agreement, both on the substance and the structure of the approach for bolstering it and to lay the ground for smooth and fruitful exchanges between the European Union and the ACP counterparts.
Mr. Louis Michel, born in September 1947 is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, a member of the European Parliament and the Belgium Mouvement Réformateur.
After a fruitful professional career as a teacher between 1968 and 1979, Mr. Louis Michel began his political life in 1999 and held various positions in political parties and national trade unions, local government bodies, regional assembly, the national parliament and in the national government in Belgium serving as Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister for Institutional Reform. He has also been a member of the Benelux Inter Parliamentary Consultative Council and Member of the Convention on the Future of Europe between 1995 and 2004.
His career in the EU institutions began in 2004 as a member of the European Commission responsible for Science and Research Policy and in 2009, member of the European Commission with responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid. In 2013 Mr Mitchel was Special envoy of the International Organization of French-Speaking Countries to monitor the situation in the Central African Republic.
Distributed by APO on behalf of Delegation of the European Union to Ghana.
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
UN: Rights Body Sets South Sudan Probe:
The United Nations Human Rights Council on March 24, 2017, extended the mandate of the three-member Commission on South Sudan for a renewable one year term, and expanded the scope of its work.
The council mandated the commission to “determine and report the facts and circumstances of, collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence and ethnic violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.” The Commission was also mandated to make its findings available to the African Union hybrid court for South Sudan, once it is established.
The situation in South Sudan will be discussed at the council in September, and the commission will present a comprehensive report to the council March, 2018.
The following quote can be attributed to Laila Matar, the UN advocate at Human Rights Watch:
“The Human Rights Council’s extension and expansion of the mandate of the Commission on South Sudan is a positive move. The council has taken a significant step toward justice for deliberate killings, mass rape, torture, and other abuses in South Sudan by authorizing the commission to collect and preserve evidence of the crimes. These efforts can bolster prosecutions by the proposed African Union hybrid court, which should be urgently established.”
Distributed by APO on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
Change of British High Commissioner to South Africa:
Mr Nigel Casey CMG MVO has been appointed British High Commissioner to South Africa in succession to Dame Judith Macgregor DCMG LVO, who will be retiring from the Diplomatic Service.
Mr Casey will take up his appointment in April 2017.
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
