NIAMEY, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Gabon on Saturday signed three African Union (AU) treaties amid the AU's call for its member countries to keep the momentum in the ratification of continental accords.
The Gabonese Republic signed the three AU treaties on Saturday on the sidelines of the ongoing 12th Extraordinary Summit of the AU Heads of State and Government, slated from July 4 to 8 in Niamey, capital of Niger.
The three continental accords that were signed by the central African nation include the AU Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Older Persons as well as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa.
The African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation, which is also known as the Niamey Convention, was adopted in January 2014.
The Convention, which was so far signed by 17 AU member countries including Gabon and ratified by five countries, is expected to enter into force upon the deposit of the fifteenth ratification to the pan African bloc AU.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Older Persons, which was adopted in January 2016, has so far witnessed twelve signatures and only one ratification, despite the protocol necessitates at least 15 ratifications for it to enter into force.
While the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa was so far signed by four countries, including Gabon, since it was adopted back in January 2018.
Gabon's decision to sign the three AU treaties came as the 55-member pan African bloc recently warned that the low ratification rate of continental treaties is an undermining force affecting efforts to build sustainable and resilient African societies.
"The low ratification rate of the African Union Treaties is undermining efforts towards the building of sustainable and resilient African societies," the 55-member pan African bloc said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The AU, which emphasized the vital need of building sustainable and resilient societies across the African continent as its major continental development agenda, also noted that efforts are underway so as to ratification rate of the various continental treaties that envisaged an overall development of Africa.
