PSC/PR/BR(CDXXX)
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Participants urged Member States to strengthen their regulatory mechanisms on the
exploitation and management of natural resources and to ensure that the proceeds from
these resources are utilized in meeting the basic needs of their people, with a view to
promoting equitable development and distribution of benefits.
There was a strong call for Council to be more engaged and to make efforts to make regular
visits to conflict and post-conflict areas. Council welcomed the suggestion and agreed to
include such visits in its Annual Programme of Work.
Participants called for greater synergies within the AU Commission and among AU Member
States. They stressed the need for greater engagement and collaboration with CSOs and the
African academia, within the context of the Livingstone Formula, taking into account the
Conclusions of the Maseru PSC Retreat of February 2014.
Participants recalled paragraph 17 of Assembly Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.501 (XXII), which
declared 2014-2024 as the Madiba Nelson Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa and,
in this regard, stressed the importance of national reconciliation in nation-building, conflict
resolution, as well as promotion of national healing and justice.
Participants and Council called for practical measures to effectively address the illicit
proliferation of small arms, light weapons and other types of weaponry, including the need
for universal signature and ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty. They called for the naming
and shaming of suppliers, financiers, facilitators, transit points and recipients of illicit
weapons, with a view to stemming the phenomenon of the illicit proliferation of these
weapons.
Council requested the Commission to undertake a comprehensive study on the flow of illicit
weapons into and within Africa and submit to it the outcome of such a study.
Council agreed on the urgent need for the elaboration of a Roadmap, to be submitted, for
consideration by the Assembly, to underpin the actions necessary for the attainment of the
goal of a conflict-free Africa by 2020, and called on all stakeholders to contribute to this
process. Council requested the Commission to prepare the elements of a Roadmap for its
consideration.
Council agreed to remain seized of the matter.