Assembly/AU/4(XII) Page 1 REPORT OF THE PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL ON ITS ACTIVITIES AND THE STATE OF PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA I. INTRODUCTION 1. According to Article 7(q) of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), the PSC shall “submit, through its Chairperson, regular reports to the Assembly on its activities and the state of peace and security in Africa.” The present report, prepared in conformity with the said Article, covers the activities undertaken by the Council during the period July 2008 to December 2008, and provides an overview of the state of peace and security on the continent during the period. 2. The specific aspects covered include the signature and ratification of the PSC Protocol, membership of the PSC, rotation of the chairmanship of the PSC, activities undertaken by the PSC and the state of peace and security in Africa. II. SIGNATURE AND RATIFICATION OF THE PSC PROTOCOL 3. At the time of finalizing this report, 51 member States had signed the PSC Protocol, while 44 had both signed and ratified it. Two member States are yet to sign and ratify the Protocol, namely, Cape Verde and Eritrea. The following member States have signed the Protocol but have not yet ratified it: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Seychelles and Somalia. III. MEMBERSHIP OF THE PSC 4. As stipulated in Article 5 (1) of the Protocol, the PSC is composed of fifteen (15) members with equal rights and who are elected as follows: 10 members elected for a two (2) year term and five (5) members elected for a three (3) year term. The Assembly would recall that the current ten(10) members of the PSC for a two (2) year-term (2008- 2010), namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Mali, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia were elected by the Executive Council during its Ordinary session held in Addis Ababa, in January 2008. 5. The mandate of the newly elected PSC members began on 1 April 2008, in accordance with paragraph A-2(i) of the Conclusions of the PSC Retreat on the Working Methods of the PSC, held in Dakar, Senegal, in July 2007. The current list of the Council members in the English alphabetical order is as follows: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia. IV. ROTATION OF THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE PSC 6. In conformity with Rule 23 of the Rules of Procedure of the PSC, the chairmanship of the PSC rotates among its members on a monthly basis following the English alphabetical order of the list of the PSC members. Furthermore, as provided for in the Conclusions of the Dakar PSC Retreat on the working methods, a new list of PSC members was elaborated following the election of ten members of Council for a two year term by the Executive Council in January 2008, on the basis