\nUganda\u2019s Chairmanship<\/b><\/p>\n
The President of the Republic Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, was elected by acclamation as the new Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement for a three-year term from 2024 t0 2027. Uganda took over the Chairmanship from Azerbaijan, which has steered NAM since 2019 the Covid-19 pandemic. NAM which is the second-largest group of countries after the United Nations, was founded in 1961 at the height of the Cold War between the West and East. But, unlike other regional and international organizations, it neither has a formal founding Charter, Act, or Treaty, nor a permanent secretariat. The country holding the rotational chairmanship is responsible for coordinating and managing the affairs of the Movement. NAM membership consists of 120 countries \u2014 53 from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and two from Europe. It also includes the non-UN member state of Palestine, 17 other observer countries and 10 observer organizations.<\/p>\n
Hitting back<\/b>
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Upon taking over the chairmanship of NAM, President Museveni lashed out at the Western nations for what he calls oppression of the third world and imposed ideologies. \u201cWe are, therefore, not impressed and cannot be part of the morbid bigotry of uni-ideological thinking of this or that type. The universe has been here for the last 30 billion years, and human society has been here for the last four and a half million years. You, therefore, should not have the audacity to impose on the society you live in, let alone the world, your narrow uni-ideological orientation,\u201d he said. President Museveni said Western countries should respect the freedom of others. \u201cWe are flabbergasted and look down with contempt, at the philosophical, ideological, and strategic shallowness of some of the actors in the world. Why not respect the freedom of everybody, if you say you are a democrat? Museveni said. \u201cOur stand is that the world should concentrate on the common human problems \u2500 prosperity through trade, the advance of science and technology to deal with human problems, the environment, crime, and terrorism,\u201d he added. Mr. Museveni, who has been criticized by Western powers for assenting to homosexuality law in May 2023, called for concerted effort in defining clear \u201cpriorities that favour developing countries by maintaining unity, solidarity, and collective coordination among our member states\u201d ahead of the United Nations Summit of the Future to be held in New York in September 2024.<\/p>\n
Ambitions<\/b><\/p>\n
The new NAM chairperson emphasised the importance of NAM’s collective strength in securing a brighter future and safeguarding the freedoms and rights of developing nations. He called for a renewed focus on priorities that benefit these countries, such as unity, solidarity, and the promotion of their interests on the global stage. The Non-Aligned Movement’s strength should be harnessed to exert significant influence, particularly at the United Nations, to drive effective and transformative processes for a better future, said Mr. Museveni. “In the negotiations for the ‘Pact of the Future’ \u2013 the outcome document of the upcoming UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 \u2013 we must clearly define priorities that favour developing countries by upholding unity, solidarity, and collective coordination among our member states.”<\/p>\n
The Outcome<\/b><\/p>\n
During the summit, two committees, namely, the political and the economic\/social committees were established to consider the draft Outcome Document and the Kampala Political Declaration document. The documents were unanimously adopted by the Heads of State and Government on 20th January 2024.<\/p>\n
Siege on Gaza Strip <\/b>
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The 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement held from 19th to 20th January 2024 at the beach side resort of Speke was totally dominated by the raging war in Gaza. During the two-day Summit most the Heads of State and Government devoted much of their statement on the current siege of the Gaza strip by Israel and it attendant humanitarian consequences. The Heads of State and Government of NAM called for immediate humanitarian ceasefire on the siege of Gaza, reiterated the need for initiation of processes leading to the creation of a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital and affirmed the support for the State of Palestine to become a member of the United Nations. In an interview with Mr. Tahiru Iddrisu, a senior delegate from Ghana, who has been participating in the Summit confirmed to Africa-Press that as was expected discussions at the meetings centred largely on the current Palestinian situation. The singular act of the Government of South Africa to haul Israel to the International Court of Justice seeking to declare Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza as genocide received a lot of commendation and praise from member states.<\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Faridah N Kulumba Africa-Press – Uganda. On Monday 15 of this year, the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) kicked off in Kampala, capital of Uganda. The Summit was attended by Heads of State and Government leaders from about 120 member countries across the world. The Summit which is one of the biggest global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":65687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,258],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-65688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\n