TOWARD A REGIONAL APPROACH TO HUMAN SECURITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

In this, the twenty-sixth Martello Paper, Alhaji Bah — a specialist on regional security in Africa — assesses the efforts of the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to create a security architecture for the sub- region, which includes fourteen states reaching from the Cape to the northern bor- ders of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). [...] The new approach was clearly spelt out in Article (2) of the SADC Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, which outlines the Organ’s objectives as follows: “protect the people and safeguard the development of the Region against instability aris- ing from the breakdown of law and order, intra-state conflict, inter-state conflict and aggression; promote the development of democratic. [...] The end of the Cold War superpower rivalry, coupled with the liberation of the remaining minority-ruled states of Namibia and South Africa and the ensuing disarmament and demobilization of thousands of fighters, marked a new phase in Southern Africa’s attempt to deal with the problem of small arms proliferation. [...] The South African position was based on Article 10 of the SADC Treaty, which stated that the SADC Summit is the “supreme policy-making Institution of SADC” and is “responsible for the overall policy direction and control of the functions of SADC.”52 Although South Africa did not dispute the fact that it was the Organ’s responsibility to address intra- and 24 Toward a Regional Approach to Human Sec. [...] The controversial sub-regional responses to the crises in Lesotho and the Demo- cratic Republic of Congo are clear manifestations of the rift that emerged over the control of the Organ.