The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have just concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will contribute to the strengthening of relations between the two organizations and to an improvement in the coordination of their activities.
The MoU was signed on 15 May in Gaborone, Botswana, by Dr.Stergomena Lawrence Tax, the Executive Secretary of the SADC, and Jürg Eglin, head of the ICRC regional delegation in Pretoria. The two organizations have agreed to hold regular consultations on issues of mutual interest.
Among others, the SADC and ICRC will work together to promote international humanitarian law (IHL) and encourage its member States to fully comply with their treaty obligations, while the ICRC may support SADC through capacity building in IHL, as well as International Human Rights standards applicable in law enforcement operations, to bodies within SADC, including the SADC Standby Brigade.
The ICRC works in the 15 SADC member States (Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) in cooperation with the countries' Red Cross societies to protect and assist people adversely affected by armed conflict and other violence.
For further information, please contact:
SADC Secretariat at: Tel: +267 3951863
Ian Edelstein, ICRC Pretoria, tel: +27 21 430 7335 or +27 82 559 2046
