Experts to review ECA-AUC policy report on AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol

Addis Ababa, March 27, 2023 (FBC) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) launched a study to identify and demonstrate the benefits of the free movement of persons for implementing the AfCFTA.

According to ECA the expert’s meeting on AU’s free movement of persons protocol will be held 29-30 March 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya.

ECA stated that the meeting sets to establish the factors that account for the slow ratification of the AU’s Free Movement of Persons Protocol and to make policy recommendations on how to accelerate the ratification of the Protocol.

It also plans to demonstrate the imperative of the free movement of persons for continental integration, particularly for the effective implementation of the AfCFTA, ECA added.

ECA indicated that member states of the AU adopted the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment in 2018.

However, as of July 2022, the Protocol has only been ratified by four countries namely Rwanda, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, and Mali adding that far below the 15-ratification threshold required for it to come into force, ECA further indicated.