African citizen passport launched

Accra, June 28, GNA - The African Citizen passport was on Thursday launched in Accra by some Civil Society groups shortly after the official opening of the Ninth Assembly of the African Union Heads of States Summit.

The Passport, green in colour, requiring only the bearer's name and picture, is said to be valid until member states of the African Union issued an African Passport as required to fulfill the vision of a people driven African Union and a United Africa.

According to the proponents of the African Citizen's Passport, launched at a press conference in Accra, a continental government without citizenship was meaningless.

The passport is to allow the bearer free passage, ability to trade, work or reside in all parts of Africa with the full rights, entitlement and responsibilities of a citizen.

Mr Lamine Ndiaye of Oxfam International, one of the proponents said the first step for the United States of Africa was to give its people the right to travel across the continent freely. "The only time that a national passport should be demanded is when one desires to travel outside the continent," he said. Mr Ndiaye said in his opinion the debates were useless now and that what was needed was to make the people of Africa have a feeling of oneness, have one passport and be able to move about freely without the issue of Visa acquisition.

"If we continue to leave the integration to our governments, nothing would be achieved, but if we start the movement through the people a lot would be achieved within a short time," he said.

Madam Una Kumba Thompson of the Women of Liberia Peace Network asked how the African government could be talking of a United States of Africa when the French Embassy issued visa to Kenyans travelling to Senegal and the United Kingdom Embassy issued visa to Senegalese going to Kenya.

Citing the case of Ethiopia, she said Ethiopians normally gave two years visa to Americans visiting their country and only three months to Togolese on the same mission.

"What we are calling for is the abolishing of visas across the continent, to allow Africans, especially women who have to move from one country to the other for trade or because of marital issues, move freely across the continent.

"Women have always been at the receiving end when it came to the issue of passports and visas, with some even losing their citizenships because they had married men from other African countries.

"The inhumane treatment that women go through because of the lack of passport would be a thing of the past if a common passport is used across the continent," Madam Thompson, also a member of the Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR), a civil society group, said. She said the proposal of the Union Government was a long held vision to consolidate African unity, by bringing people with shared values and rights together.

"Unfortunately, the status of women continues to deteriorate under war and conflict, deeply rooted economic inequality, repressive undemocratic regimes, domestic violence and trauma, harmful cultural practices and poverty," she said.

Madam Thompson said at the heart of the union's debate must be a commitment to unite Africa's people across gender by upholding the respect for women's rights and equality of opportunities for both men and women.

"The debate on the Union government is timely, but it will only be relevant in as far as it will recognize that the majority of the African people are women and girls, and that to win their confidence African leaders need to seriously take up their concerns head on," she said. Cheikh Tidiane, the Senegalese Foreign Minister, who was present during the launch of the African Citizen's passport said it did not make sense to give non-Africans easy access to the continent whilst African had a hectic time obtaining visas to other African states. He supported the call for erasing the visa application across African states. 28 June 07