Page 144 - sadc40en
P. 144
Principles and Objectives of the Organ on Politics, Defence Box 5.1
and Security Cooperation
Principles
As, inter alia, set out in Article 4 of the SADC Treaty, the following shall be the guiding principles for the SADC Organ on
Politics, Defence and Security:
a) sovereign equality of all member States;
b) respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each State and for its inalienable right to independent existence;
c) achievement of solidarity, peace and security in the region;
d) observance of human rights, democracy and the rule of law;
e) promotion of economic development in the SADC region in order to achieve for all member States, equity, balance
and mutual benefit;
f) peaceful settlement of disputes by negotiation, mediation and arbitration;
g) military intervention of whatever nature shall be decided upon only after all possible political remedies have been
exhausted in accordance with the Charter of the OAU and the United Nations.
Objectives
The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security shall work to the following objectives:
a) protect the people and safeguard the development of the region, against instability arising from the breakdown of
134 law and order, interstate conflict and external aggression;
b) promote political cooperation among States and the evolution of common political value systems and institutions;
c) develop a common foreign policy in areas of mutual concern and interest, and to lobby as a region, on issues of
common interest at international fora;
d) cooperate fully in regional security and Defence through conflict prevention management
and resolution;
e) mediate in interstate disputes and conflicts;
f) use preventive diplomacy to preempt conflict in the region, both within and between
states, through an early warning system;
g) where conflict does occur, to seek to end this quickly as possible through diplomatic
means. Only where such means fail would the Organ recommend that the Summit
should consider punitive measures. These responses would be agreed in a Protocol on
Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution;
h) promote and enhance the development of democratic institutions and practices
within member states, and to encourage the observance of universal human rights
as provided for in the Charters and Conventions of the OAU and the United Nations;
i) promote peacekeeping and peacemaking in order to achieve sustainable peace
and security;
j) give political support to the organs and institutions of SADC;
k) promote the political, economic social, and environmental dimensions of security;
l) develop a collective security capacity and conclude a Mutual Defence Pact for
responding to external threats, and a regional peacekeeping within national
armies that could be called upon in the region, or elsewhere on the continent;
m) develop close cooperation between the police and security services of the
region, with a view to addressing cross border crime, as well as promoting a
communitybased approach on matters of unity;
n) encourage and monitor the ratification of United Nations, Organisation of
African Unity, and international conventions and treaties on arms control and
disarmament, human rights and peaceful relations between states;
o) coordinate the participation of member States in international and regional
peacekeeping operations; and
p) address extraregional conflicts which impact on peace and security in Southern Africa.
Source Communiqué of SADC Summit, 28 June 1996
