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Minister Dlamini Zuma to sign Agreement on Facility for Africa South
African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the Secretary General of
the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) will sign an Agreement on the Establishment
of a Facility for Africa at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria on Tuesday
17 April 2007. The PCA was established in 1899 in The Hague as the first
global institution to promote the peaceful settlement of disputes between States.
South Africa became a Member State of the PCA in 1997 by acceding to the Convention
for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. The PCA offers facilities,
professional administration and expert guidance with regard to four of the dispute
settlement methods provided for in Article 33 of the UN Charter, namely enquiry,
mediation, conciliation and arbitration. Originally it focused only on the settlement
of inter-State disputes, but has since extended its facilities to cases involving
non-State parties, and can consequently now assist in settling disputes between
a State and for example, a foreign investor. The PCA has over the last decades
experienced a considerable increase in caseload, which now involves investment
and contract disputes, maritime delimitation, international boundaries, banking
and finance, international humanitarian law and environmental law. The advantage
of using arbitration as a method of dispute settlement over judicial proceedings
is that the arbitration proceedings are cheaper and quicker, more flexible and
offer a greater degree of autonomy to the parties to the dispute as they can choose
the arbitrators and the rules and procedures to be applied. In order to
expand their services geographically, the PCA has opened a Regional Facility for
the Promotion of Dispute Resolution through the Mechanisms of the Permanent Court
of Arbitration in Costa Rica in order to meet the demands of the Latin American
region. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) expressed the desire to
establish a Regional Facility for the Promotion of Dispute Resolution through
the Mechanisms of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in South Africa to service
the African continent. The Agreement provides for the establishment of a Regional
Facility for the Promotion of Dispute Resolution through the Mechanisms of the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in South Africa, to function on an ad hoc basis.
It is considered that the establishment of a Regional Facility for Africa
in South Africa will be a positive development, in view thereof that it will offer
an alternative way of dispute settlement besides judicial settlement as offered
by domestic and international courts, like the International Court of Justice
and the African Court of Justice. Media are invited for the signing ceremony
as follows: DATE : Tuesday 17 April 2007 TIME : 15h30
for 16h00
VENUE : Presidential Guesthouse
Bryntirion Estate
Church Street (Gate 9)
Pretoria
(Please present press cards)
(Please
RSVP) ENQUIRIES/RSVPs : Manusha Pillai on 082 389 3587
Issued
by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001 16
April 2007 | 
