PETITION: 5th Pan-African Union (PYU) Congress 19 to 20 December 2017 Chairperson African Union Commission P.O Box 3243 Roosevelt Street (Old Airport Area) Addis Ababa-Ethiopia

Your Excellency, We bring you greetings from Khartoum-Sudan, from the recently concluded 5th Congress of the Pan African Youth Union (PYU) - held in Khartoum from 19-20 December 2017. The congress was conducted in an unprofessional manner that violates all the core values of the African Union and that of the PYU Statues. This has triggered a reaction and boycott of the election process by 10 progressive National Youth Council’s due to a lack of fairness and transparency. We have summarized our complaints below; 1- At the level of the preparation for the congress: a) Selective controlling of the invitations to few National Youth Councils that support the incumbent President of PYU b) Lack of inclusion and invitation letters to all 55 members of the African Union Commission and their National Youth Councils c) Several delegates with no connection and mandate from their various National Youth Councils and government where invited illegally. d) Several delegates contesting for PYU Executive Positions are disqualified without any clear explanation based on PYU Statues i.e (Gambia, Chad, Eritrea, Ghana and Uganda). e) Corruption and bribery of several delegates from National Youth Councils by President of PYU 2- During the congress: a) Lack of quorum for holding elections 29 out of (55) + Diaspora b) Delegations not authorized by their countries – not part of national councils (students in the African Sudanese University) c) No written electoral procedures and rules in the PYU statues

d) PYU President (Ms. Francine Muyumba) and the Secretary General (Soulayemane Sidibeh), appointed an unknown Electoral Commission for the congress without any consultation with the Executive Bureau. e) The President insisted to finish the congress no matter the cost (decrease the days of the congress from 5 to 2 days) f) No election was conducted to select members of the Commission of Congress to supervise the congress. g) President of the PYU not responding to the continuing demands to give the Presidency of the Congress to elected committee to supervise the implementation of the regulations of the congress. h) No internal systems and procedures for organizing the congress (work plan and congress ) i) No chance for appeals on the legitimacy of elections j) The congress committee is not given the files of the candidates (President of the committee controlling according to the orders of the President and Secretary General) k) Head of the congress committee conducted the voting process by raising hands instead of polls. l) Lack of the congress documents in the African Union official languages. m) Lack of audited financial reports (operational and activity) only providing an activity report with the pictures of the PYU President in almost all pages of the badly written report. n) The two (2) Diaspora representatives are from the same countries with the PYU President (Congo DRC) and Secretary General (Mali) and these positions have not been approved by the PYU Congress. We also wish to inform you that the congress was full of malpractices and cheating in various levels as orchestrated in a dictatorial manner by the PYU President and Secretary General; in order to secure their re-elections. The malpractices are summarized below: North Africa: The elected Vice-President for North Africa Mr. Hassan Ghazally (Egypt) has already served two terms as Deputy Secretary General for North Africa and therefore; he is not eligible to run for another term; thus violating the PYU Constitution (Article 38) Morocco: Elected as PYU Deputy Secretary General, his candidacy was illegally accepted because he was not mandated by the government of Morocco nor the designated national youth authority. He is also above the official age limit of youth (under 35) according to the African Youth Charter.

West Africa: Niger: Elected Vice President for West Africa and above the age limit of 35yrs. Ghana: Not accepted for the candidacy, for the position of the PYU Secretary General and obliging him to run for the position for the Deputy Secretary General as a compensation by PYU President and Secretary General. Sudan: Exclusion from the candidacy to the position of the PYU Secretary General. Mali: Two successive terms in the position of the Secretary General and above the age limit of 35yrs Gambia: Exclusion from the running for the position of President citing Article 11 of PYU Statues that refers to membership of PYU and not election to PYU Executive Committee. Central Africa: Exclusion of Tchad from the candidacy for the position of PYU president which led to the interference of the Tchad Ambassador to Sudan which results in the change of the election direction. East Africa Exclusion of Uganda and Eritrea from the position of Vice President and Deputy Secretary General respectively. . Your Excellency, we are deeply saddened with the outcomes of the 5th PYU Congress and the manner at which it was conducted from pre-congress activities to the election process. We are safe-guarding the integrity of a promising organization like PYU and appealing onbehalf of 35 member states of the African Union that are not invited to the congress. We are emberraced that African youth leaders are becoming corrupted. The African Union has declared 2018 as the ‘’Year of Anti-Corruption’’ - we are taking the lead as young Pan-Africans to re-affirm our commitment to the core values of the African Union and the fight against corruption.

We are kindly appealing to your highly respected office to strongly consider this petition and take necessary actions and investigate the conducts of the 5th PYU Congress. The PYU is an independent organization; but it is made up of African Union members states and they represent the voices of African Youth at the African Union.

Our Recommendation:

o) Institute a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the 5th PYU Congress p) The African Union Commission should not recognize the current PYU Executive Board as the legitimate voice of African Youth q) Consider supporting the reorganization of the 5th PYU congress with participation of all African Union member states; under the coordination of the African Union Youth Division and supervision of the African Union Department of Political Affairs r) Organize a special youth forum on Anti-Corruption as part of the African Union Heads of State Summit in 2018 in Addis-Ababa s) Develop a framework to officially transform the Pan-African Youth Union as the specialized agency of youth development of the African Union Commission with an operational budget. The following aforementioned National Youth Councils - signing this petition strongly believes that the African Union Commission will intervene in resolving this disgraceful situation. Your Excellency, we wish to register our sincere thanks and appreciation to the AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology and AU Ambassador to Sudan Mission for their support and encouragement to the 5th PYU Congress in Khartoum-Sudan. Please see list of counties that have commissioned and signed this petition. 1. Eritea 2. The Gambia 3. Algeria

4. Sudan 5. Libya 6. Tchad 7. South Sudan 8. Saharawi Republic 9. Uganda 10. Comoros Cc: -

AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology AU Ambassador to Sudan Foreign Affairs Minister of Sudan Youth Minister of Sudan Chair of STC Bureau on Youth, Sports and Culture