Musa Ngary Bitaye / Commissioner

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During the intersession, I was able to carry out some activities and also finalized certain tasks on the work of the commission

Format for Promotion Mission Report

1. At the 46th Ordinary Session, I was tasked by the Commission to prepare draft guidelines on the format and contents of the report on promotion missions.

2. I accordingly worked on and produced a draft paper which I will present for discussion and adoption at this 47th Ordinary session of the Commission.

Nigeria Promotion Report

3. I was also able to supervise the preparation of the promotion mission report to Nigeria, conducted from 14 – 18 September, 2009, which I can now present to the session for discussion and adoption.

Violent Conflict in Jos Plateau Nigeria

4. During the month of February 2010 my attention was drawn to the recurrent inter ethnic violence in Jos Plateau, Northern Nigeria. A note verbal to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, expressing the concern of the commission and an appeal to stop the violence, arrest and prosecute those responsible, was sent by the Chairperson of the
Commission to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, also requesting for an investigation mission by the Commission.

8th Extraordinary Session

5. I attended the 8th Extraordinary Session of the Commission held in Banjul, The Gambia from 22 February to 3 March 2010. Several outstanding issues, including the finalization of the Commission’s Interim Rules of Procedure, the presentation and adoption of the Commission’s 2010 Budget, were concluded.

6. During the Session, a delegation of the Sierra Leone Human Rights Commission was received and sensitized on the work of the Commission and the Commission expressed its intention to conduct a joint mission to Sierra Leone in the month of August, 2010.

PRC Meeeting

7. In the month of January, 2010, as Chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Staff matters, I was part of the delegation to the meeting of AU Permanent Representative Committee, during which the budgets of all the AU organs were considered.

African Human Rights Strategy Meeting

8. From 11 to 13 March, 2010, I was a member of the Commission’s delegation which attended this meeting for the purpose of moving forward the African Human Rights Strategy, organized by the African Union Commission.

9. During the meeting, various papers and studies were considered, including the "Road Map for the Development of a Human Rights Strategy for Africa", the consultant’s "Report on the Mapping Exercise on the Development of a comprehensive Human Rights Strategy for Africa", the "Report of Brainstorming/Consultative Meeting of AU Organs on their
working Relations", held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 28 – 30 September 2008 and a paper on "The African Governance Architecture (AGA). The final report was adopted after the meeting.

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Know Your Rights

13. This project to translate into African Languages all the African Human Rights instruments, as a tool to empower the African population with the knowledge of their rights guaranteed in these instruments, is making slow progress, due to the lack of adequate funding.

14. So far progress has been made in the following:

  1. The African Charter, translated into Fulfulde language
  2. The Protocol on the Rights of women, translated into Moore language;
  3. The Protocol to the African Charter on the Establishment of the African Court, translated into Fulfulde language;
  4. The Protocol on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, translated into Moore language.

15. I am glad to report that the Open Society for Justice, East Africa, has expressed interest in the project with a view to contribute to the various tools and mechanism for implementation on the ground and to also facilitate funding for the project.