PAP, AU Peace and Security Council Deepen Partnership as Boutbig Calls for ‘African Solutions to African Problems’

Pan-African Parliament President Dr. Fateh Boutbig calls for stronger parliamentary diplomacy and a strategic PAP-PSC partnership to advance peace, security and African-led solutions.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) have moved to deepen their institutional partnership on conflict prevention, parliamentary diplomacy and peacebuilding, with PAP President H.E. Dr. Fateh Boutbig calling for cooperation that moves beyond consultation towards coordinated and practical action.

The high-level engagement took place in Addis Ababa on 19 August 2026 during the PSC’s 1362nd Session, dedicated to consultations with the Pan-African Parliament. It marked the first engagement of the Seventh Bureau of the Continental Parliament with the PSC following its election in April 2026.

Held under the theme “Leveraging Parliamentary Diplomacy to Promote Peace and Security in Africa,” the consultation brought together two African Union institutions whose mandates intersect around the promotion of peace, security, stability, democratic governance and continental integration.

Opening the meeting, Dr. Boutbig argued that the complexity of Africa’s contemporary security challenges makes institutional cooperation indispensable.

“Building peace can no longer be the responsibility of a single organ or institution. Rather, it is a shared continental responsibility that requires complementarity of roles and concerted efforts,” the PAP President said.

His intervention placed parliamentary diplomacy and citizen representation at the heart of the evolving relationship between the PAP and the PSC.

From Consultation to Joint Action

Dr. Boutbig stressed that the Pan-African Parliament does not seek to compete with or duplicate the mandate of the Peace and Security Council, which bears primary responsibility within the African Peace and Security Architecture.

Instead, he presented Parliament as a complementary institution capable of bringing a parliamentary and people-centred dimension to continental peace and security efforts.

“We do not view the role of the Pan-African Parliament as a substitute for that of the Peace and Security Council, nor as a parallel track, but rather as a complementary force that supports and reinforces its work,” he said.

The PAP President consequently called for the development of what he described as “a strategic, sustainable and institutional partnership” between the two institutions.

Such a partnership, he argued, should progressively move from consultation to coordination, from coordination to joint action, and from reacting to conflicts to preventing them.

The approach could significantly expand the practical relevance of parliamentary diplomacy within the African Peace and Security Architecture.

PAP Positions Itself as Bridge Between AU Decisions and African Citizens

Central to Dr. Boutbig’s argument was the distinctive representative character of the Pan-African Parliament.

PAP Members are drawn from national parliaments across the continent, giving the institution connections not only with continental structures but also with national legislatures, political institutions and local communities.

This, according to the PAP President, positions Parliament to serve as a bridge between AU decision-making and national realities and between continental institutions and African citizens.

The Parliament could therefore play a stronger role in preventive diplomacy, mediation, reconciliation, confidence-building, early warning and political dialogue, particularly where parliamentarians can help open channels of communication before disputes escalate into violent conflict.

Dr. Boutbig said this parliamentary dimension could also be deployed during political transitions and periods of crisis.

The argument reflects a growing recognition that sustainable peace cannot depend exclusively on diplomatic interventions undertaken after conflicts have erupted. Parliamentary engagement can contribute upstream by addressing political grievances, facilitating dialogue and strengthening democratic institutions capable of peacefully managing differences.

Turning Continental Decisions into National Law

Beyond diplomacy, the PAP President highlighted another potentially powerful contribution of the Parliament: translating continental commitments into domestic legislation.

African Union decisions and treaties ultimately depend heavily on implementation by Member States. National parliaments determine legislation, exercise oversight and approve budgets, while in many countries they also play an important role in treaty ratification.

PAP Members are therefore uniquely positioned to connect continental policy commitments with national legislative processes.

Dr. Boutbig said Parliament could mobilize national legislatures to support the ratification of African Union instruments, harmonize domestic legislation with continental commitments and monitor implementation.

This legislative bridge could become one of the most important elements of the PAP-PSC partnership because many of Africa’s peace and security challenges are closely connected to governance, constitutionalism, human rights, migration, inequality, natural-resource management and sustainable development.

Partnership Grounded in AU Law

The growing cooperation between the two institutions is not merely political. It has a clear treaty foundation.

The 2001 Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Pan-African Parliament identifies the promotion of peace, security and stability among the objectives of the Continental Parliament.

More specifically, Article 18 of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council requires close working relations between the PSC and the Pan-African Parliament in furtherance of peace, security and stability in Africa.

Article 18 also envisages the PSC, when requested by the PAP, submitting reports through the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to facilitate Parliament’s responsibilities relating to peace and security.

The institutional relationship therefore has the potential to extend well beyond annual ceremonial consultations.

Building on the 2023 and 2025 Commitments

The 2026 consultation forms part of an institutional process that has developed substantially over the past three years.

At its 1160th Meeting on 30 June 2023, the Peace and Security Council decided to institutionalize and regularize its annual consultative engagement with the Pan-African Parliament. The meetings were envisaged as alternating between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Midrand, South Africa.

The relationship acquired further structure in July 2025 when the two institutions held their Inaugural Joint Consultative Meeting at the PAP headquarters in Midrand.

The PSC subsequently adopted the conclusions of that engagement at its 1290th Meeting on 22 July 2025.

Importantly, the Council requested the African Union Commission, working with the PAP and other relevant stakeholders, to facilitate implementation of the conclusions and urgently develop a roadmap and workplan for PSC-PAP collaboration.

PAP Members were also encouraged to take the conclusions back to their national and regional parliaments to promote implementation at national, regional and continental levels.

The 2026 meeting therefore represents an opportunity to assess progress from those commitments and move the relationship towards measurable institutional cooperation.

Parliamentary Diplomacy as a Tool for Conflict Prevention

The Addis Ababa consultation also highlighted the growing place of parliamentary diplomacy within Africa’s peace architecture.

While traditional diplomacy is primarily conducted by governments and executive institutions, parliamentarians possess different channels of engagement. They can communicate across political divides, interact with opposition parties and civil society, engage communities and use parliamentary networks to sustain dialogue where formal diplomatic channels become constrained.

That capacity becomes particularly relevant to preventive diplomacy.

Dr. Boutbig identified dialogue, trust-building, mediation, reconciliation and early warning among areas where PAP could complement the PSC.

The meeting also heard calls for stronger preventive diplomacy and early diplomatic action, while AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye emphasized the contribution that parliamentary participation can make to democratic legitimacy, mediation, oversight and accountability.

The emerging proposition is therefore not to create a parallel peace and security architecture, but to use Parliament’s comparative advantages to reinforce the existing one.

New PAP Model Laws Highlight Legislative Dimension

The consultation came shortly after the First Ordinary Session of the Seventh Legislature of the Pan-African Parliament and the launch of three Model Laws covering Gender Equality and Equity, Labour Migration and Sustainable Soil Management.

Model Laws developed by the PAP provide voluntary legislative frameworks that can guide AU Member States in developing or strengthening national legislation and aligning domestic legal frameworks with continental objectives, including Agenda 2063.

Their launch is particularly relevant to the PAP-PSC discussions because the inaugural joint consultation had highlighted the importance of integrating Agenda 2063 into national policy and legislative frameworks.

Member States were encouraged to align national development plans with the continental framework and ensure that Agenda 2063 goals and priorities are reflected in domestic policies and legislation.

The development of Model Laws demonstrates one mechanism through which the PAP can help translate continental aspirations into national legislative action.

Seventh PAP Bureau Makes Its First PSC Appearance

Dr. Boutbig led a PAP delegation that included First Vice President Hon. Dr. Gayo Ashebir, Third Vice President Hon. Abba Djidda Mamar, Fourth Vice President Hon. Dr. Arlete Borges, other Members of Parliament, the Clerk of Parliament and senior officials.

The consultation was co-chaired by Dr. Boutbig and Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the African Union, Ambassador Mohamed Khaled, who serves as Chairperson of the Peace and Security Council for August 2026.

AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security H.E. Ambassador Bankole Adeoye also addressed the meeting.

For the newly elected PAP leadership, the consultation provides an early opportunity to define how the Seventh Legislature intends to engage one of the African Union’s most important decision-making bodies.

Giving Popular Legitimacy to Africa’s Peace Architecture

Perhaps the most significant element of Dr. Boutbig’s intervention was his argument that the PAP brings something to the African Peace and Security Architecture that cannot easily be replicated by executive institutions: popular representation.

“The Peace and Security Council bears a central continental responsibility for safeguarding peace, while the Pan-African Parliament carries the voice of the peoples and the legitimacy of their representation,” he said.

The implication is important.

Continental peace initiatives may become more sustainable when diplomatic and executive action is supported by parliamentary oversight, legislative implementation and engagement with citizens.

As Dr. Boutbig put it, “When political will is combined with popular legitimacy, our continental action becomes closer to our peoples and more capable of delivering tangible results.”

The challenge now will be to translate that principle into institutional practice.

That could require regular information-sharing between the PSC and PAP, parliamentary participation in appropriate preventive-diplomacy initiatives, systematic follow-up of peace and security decisions through national parliaments, stronger legislative implementation of AU instruments and mechanisms for monitoring the impact of joint initiatives.

Towards African Solutions to African Problems

The Addis Ababa meeting ultimately reflects a broader debate about how Africa strengthens its capacity to anticipate, prevent and resolve its own conflicts.

For Dr. Boutbig, closer cooperation between the PAP and PSC should become a practical expression of the principle of “African solutions to African problems.”

“Let us therefore make our partnership a model of institutional complementarity within the African Union,” he urged.

If the commitments emerging from successive consultations are translated into an effective roadmap, sustained information-sharing and concrete joint initiatives, the PAP-PSC relationship could evolve from an annual institutional dialogue into an important component of Africa’s conflict-prevention and peace building architecture.

For the Pan-African Parliament in particular, that evolution would reinforce its role not merely as a deliberative continental assembly, but as a bridge connecting African Union decisions, national parliaments and the citizens whose peace and security those decisions are ultimately intended to protect.