This was mainly done by closely following and attempting to block the ratification process of the 20-year post-Cotonou / ACP-EU agreement and the 10-year Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Ministerial Agreement that largely violate life, family, and freedom of religion and education in Africa; These two international agreements aggressively push for the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) based on a liberal sexual morality, and controversial sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) which includes the promotion of abortion.
CCI has intensively raised awareness among strategic partners and a variety of diplomats, Ambassadors and other delegates from different African countries about the negative impact of these two international public policies. This has been done through the organization of high-level virtual and face-to-face information briefing, an African Ambassadors’ dinner, and by flying to Kigali, Rwanda, to personally speak with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors from different African countries that were attending the AU – EU Meeting. Based on these activities by CCI and its partners, some initial successes were booked. One example is that after the African Ambassadors’ dinner where the dangers of the ACP-EU agreement had been explained, the African Ambassadors came together internally to discuss the need to take out any notions of SRHR from the agreement that violates their national laws. This was then presented by their Foreign Ministers during the AU – EU Meeting, which was a disappointment to the EU.
Additionally, CCI’s consultant went to South Africa in November 2021, to present and raise awareness on the ACP-EU Agreement and was one of the guest speakers during the Partnership for Religion and sustainable Development (PaRD) Annual Forum. This is an Annual Forum in which between 150 -200 faith-based organizations around the world come together to network and promote their causes. Making use of the opportunity to connect with more like-minded organizations and high-level institutions in South Africa, CCI met with the only Christian political party in South Africa, called the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), which is active in campaigning against comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). CCI also met with the Secretariat of the AU Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to find ways in which CCI can strategically collaborate with the PAP to raise awareness about the ACP-EU agreement (and any other upcoming dangerous international policy) among the 235 PAP MPs that come from all the African Union member states.
Towards the end of November and the beginning of December, much awareness creation and advocacy was done by CCI and its partners against the signing of the ESA Ministerial Commitment. Due to the hideous nature in pushing this international policy onto the Eastern and Southern African countries, CCI and its partners only heard about this Commitment about 2 weeks before the planned signing ceremony on 6 December 2021. CCI then started to work intensively with its partners in those weeks to reach the relevant government ministries that needed to sign this Commitment in order to raise awareness of the hidden violations of this Commitment to the protection of the unborn, protection of a healthy and biblical form of sexual interactions, and protecting the parental consent rights that parents should have over their adolescents and young people (at least until they are 18 years old).
Although the ESA Ministerial Commitment has been signed in secrecy by some countries (although exact information is not provided to the public), the activities in which CCI has engaged itself over last couple of months, shows that there is a strong and growing alliance across Africa that is able to reach and influence the highest levels of government in Africa to ensure a certain level of protection of Life, Family and Freedom across Africa.
As explained in the September edition of the CCI newsletter, CCI has applied for an NGO observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in June 2021 and we are still waiting for this application to be granted.
