The InterDependent

ADDIS ABABA -- The 53-member African Union, which has been criticized in the past for failing to condemn abuses by leaders across the continent, took the unusual step this week of accusing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of using disproportionate force to counter citizens’ protests and went on record saying that the people of Libya had “legitimate” demands for change.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been repeatedly blunt about Qaddafi, saying on March 1, in speaking to the General Assembly, which agreed to drop Libya from the Human Rights Council that the international community must recognize that any changes to societies in the region “must come from within.” He added: “Above all, this means local ownership and local leadership, consistent with popular aspirations for dignity and justice,” Mr. Ban said. “In this great and noble quest, the United Nations stands ready to assist in every way possible, should the people of the region and their governments request our help.”

In recent years, ties between the African Union and the United Nations, partners in peacekeeping and other missions in Africa, have grown stronger. This week -- coincidentally as the African Union’s peace and security council met to condemn the Qaddafi regime -- the UN formally opened an expanded mission headquarters here in the Ethiopian capital, where the African Union is based.

Addis Ababa was once the setting where Qaddafi declared himself declared “king of Africa,” causing some snickering in other African nations. Now some media commentators here are saying that the time for laughing at the antics of the eccentric Libyan leader is over.

It is significant that African nations did not try to block the Security Council resolution calling not only for sanctions but also for a referral of the Libyan situation to the International Criminal Court on the ground of crimes against humanity. African nations have more frequently balked at cooperation with the court. [See “Progress at the International Court as Africa Objects,” by John Washburn in The ID].

The establishment of a large UN mission to the African Union – headed by an assistant secretary-general, Zachary Muburi-Muita, a Kenyan diplomat –was ordered by the General Assembly last year. But it also reflects the persistent efforts of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to build more effective links with regional organizations around the world. Over recent decades, successive secretaries-general have looked to regional organizations to share the UN’s large burdens in peacekeeping, post-conflict rebuilding and development.

Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (center) at a January meeting on Côte D’Ivoire during the African Union summit in Addis Abba. Ban is seated between Jean Ping, left, chairman of the Commission of the African Union, and Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria.

Over the last year alone, Ban has made numerous visits to regional groups. Last March, he attended a summit of the Arab League. In July he met with leaders of Caricom, a regional organization in the Caribbean. In October he spoke with officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In the same month he met the Council of Europe and in November, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In between he attended two G-20 summits and capped the year with participation in the NATO meeting on Afghanistan, where the UN has taken on a considerable burden that can only grow if and when US and other troops leave.

At all the meetings, the secretary-general met separately with government officials for the kind of backroom diplomacy that has become his (not always popular) style. These talks pave the way for action and public statements later, after he has sensed the prevailing opinion in a range of capitals and regional centers.

When Ban attended the most recent African Union summit in late January-early February this year, he took the opportunity to discuss how the African Union might assist in tackling the dangerous political stalemate in Côte d’Ivoire, where the defeated president, Laurent Gbagbo, has refused to step down. Ban called on Africans to stand together against “the use of force to hang on to power” in West Africa. [Read "Côte d’Ivoire: Getting Worse Before It Gets Better" in The ID, by Evelyn Leopold.] Weeks later, the African Union was put to the test in North Africa as well, where revolutions have been upsetting old orders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

On the margins of the African Union summit, he held talks on the region with dozens of African leaders in addition to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ban also made a pitch for UN Women, the newly created agency – and for more attention to African women generally.

“We need to empower African women, who produce food, raise children and drive the economy here,” Ban told African leaders in a speech. “When those women take their rightful place at the negotiating table, in the Parliament and in leadership positions across society, we can unleash Africa’s enormous potential.”

Before leaving the summit here, he also held a joint press conference with Margot Wallstrom, his special representative on sexual violence in conflict. He told African leaders bluntly to start speaking out “because sexual violence thrives on silence and impunity.”