Start holding each another accountable, African leaders told

AFRICAN leaders must begin holding each other accountable for the continent to develop and address the issue of inequality, Justice Minister Given Lubinda has said.

Contributing to a discussion during the launch of African Governance Report and Targeted Review of Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) - African Union meeting, held at Avani Victoria Falls Resort in Livingstone, Mr Lubinda said it was worrying that some African countries had to date not yet attained gender equity despite the issue regarding gender equity, peace and unity having been resolved way back and recommendations made to the Heads of State during African Union and United Nations Summits.

“The international community does not have an option, we agreed to these important values way back in 1948 when we came back from the UN Convention for Human Rights,” he said.

Mr Lubinda said, “As a continent, we adopted the African Charter which spells out those important values in respect to gender, respect of people across political and ethic divide. What is stopping us from getting to that agreement is what we should be asking ourselves,” he observed.

Mr Lubindawondered why some African countries were still struggling with a challenge of attaining gender equality after so many decades.

And APRM Panel of Eminent Persons representative, Ombeni Yohana Sefue, noted that the issue of inequality in Africa was a big political issue which required addressing.

Ambassador Sefue said there was need to talk about transformative leadership as it could easily frustrate the efforts of APRM Secretariat.

Meanwhile, Zambia was expected to give a presentation on the expected forthcoming Targeted Review of the nation.