Claim: An X account, Dr Toks (@fimiletoks), claimed that Egypt and North African countries have signed the Samoa Agreement, a bilateral agreement between the European Union and the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
Verdict: The claim is false. A check on the EU website did not list Northern African countries among the Agreement’s signatories.
Full Text
A report by Daily Trust Newspaper claiming that the signing of the Samoa Agreement by the federal government would legalise LGBTQ in the country has caused rancour.
The report claimed that the agreement had some clauses that would require signatory countries to recognise the voices of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) to get access to aid and grants from the European Union (EU).
While the report did not mention the specific clause, it relied on an article by Sonnie Ekwowusi, a Lagos State-based lawyer and Chairman of the Human and Constitutional Rights Committee of the African Bar Association (AfBA). Being a conservative society, the response to the story was mixed.
While the government explained that the report is not true, as the agreement did not ask signatory countries to adopt LGBQT, those who believe the report urged the government to suspend the implementation of the agreement.
The conversation on the report irked the government which threatened to sue Daily Trust. It went further to report the media organisation to an ombudsman. However, the backlash the organisation received for not doing due diligence on the report, especially for not stating the clause, led it to give a response in which it admitted lapses.
In a bid to portray the agreement as not harmful to the religious and societal teachings of what gender means, an X account, Dr Toks, @fimiletoks, claimed the agreement was signed by North African countries who also practice and follow the teachings of Islam.
The tweet with 55 comments, 318 retweets and 639 likes stated,
“All the N. African Arab nations are part of the Samoa agreement. Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, etc. Even the West and Central African countries with significant Muslim populations are also part of the agreement.”
He queried, “Is Islam in Northern Nigeria different?”
Olusegun Dada, the special assistant to Nigeria’s president on social media, also shared the same claim in a tweet that he mentioned Egypt being a signatory to the agreement. A social media card, produced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Media Centre to educate Nigerians on the countries that have signed the agreement, also included Egypt, South Africa, and other North African countries on the list of the signatories.
DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because of its potential to misinform the public.
Brief on Samoa Agreement and the controversial clauses
According to the EU, the Samoa Agreement is a framework for EU relations with African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries.
The agreement states how the EU will navigate its relationship with 79 countries, consisting of 48 African, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific countries.
It added that the “agreement aims to strengthen the capacity of the EU and the ACP countries to address global challenges together. It lays down common principles and covers the following six priority areas: democracy and human rights; sustainable economic growth and development; climate change; human and social development; peace and security; and migration and mobility.”
However, the agreement, which was signed on November 15, 2023, shows 35 countries withhold their signatures for further consultation and advice. This primarily stemmed from Articles 2.5 and 29.5 of the agreement.
However, as of July 2024, most countries that negotiated the agreement have signed it except Cuba and Equatorial Guinea.
Article 2.5 stated, “The Parties shall systematically promote a gender perspective and ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed across all policies.”
Article 29.5 stated, “The Parties shall support universal access to sexual and reproductive health commodities and healthcare services, including for family planning, information, and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.”
The articles did not explicitly mention LGBTQ, and different fact checks here, here, and here, have indicated that the document does not have the word inserted.
Verification
A check on the European Council of the European Union’s website did not include South Africa and North African countries among the countries with which the EU negotiated the agreement.
According to pages 8 to 14 of the agreement document, Egypt, South Africa and other North African countries are not included as signatories. African countries that negotiated the Samoa deal are;
Angola Benin Botswana
Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde
Cameroon Central African Republic Chad
Comoros Congo Côte d’Ivoire
D.R. Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia
Gabon Gambia Ghana
Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya
Lesotho Madagascar Malawi
Mali Mauritania Mauritius
Mozambique Namibia Niger
Nigeria Rwanda Senegal
São Tomé and Príncipe
Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia
Sudan Tanzania Togo
Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
Similarly, an infographic that gives the timeline of when countries that negotiated the agreement
Signed the agreement, it did not include South Africa and North African countries.
Conclusion
While some Islamic countries are signatories to the Samoa agreement, countries in Northern Africa and South Africa are not included in the list of signatories.
This report is produced for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking Fellowship in partnership with the Daily Trust Newspaper to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in Nigeria.
Source link : https://dubawa.org/false-south-africa-egypt-others-not-signatories-to-samoa-agreement/
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Publish date : 2024-07-26 07:00:00
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