Mrs Julia Dolly Joiner, the commissioner for Political Affairs at the African Union (AU) Commission, has urged "strong partnership" in order to eradicate the plagues of slavery and discrimination in their varied "incarnations". Mrs Joiner stressed that such partnership should be established between AU member states, the diaspora, international and regional organisations, as well as the civil society.

Mrs Joiner made these remarks during the closing ceremony of the four-day Experts meeting on Slavery, which ended on Friday at the Karaiba Beach Hotel, Kololi. The meeting was a follow-up to World Conference Against Racism and it precedes the Durban Review Conference in 2009.

The Banjul meeting was meant to review the historical and contemporary experiences on slavery and racism, alongside identifying concrete activities for the bicentennial events on slavery and make recommendations for consideration in the post-Durban and the African Diaspora Summit scheduled for 2009.

In her statement, Mrs Joiner acknowledged that participants had debated extensively on the agenda of the meeting. "If each person here invests his or her unique aptitude and resources in one or more of these activities, we cannot and surely will not fail to make significant progress towards our collective goals of eliminating discriminatory practices and ensuring that justice is delivered to the victims of slavery and various forms of racism," she added.

However, she maintained that this would require great courage and conviction for "us to make a difference". In this struggle, she continued, the actors will encounter dissent and resistance from those who fear being called to account for their wrongs. But she was upbeat that "the strength of a collective and consensual platform on the part of Africa and its diaspora based on verifiable research and justifiable moral ground, will be impossible to deny". Together, she added: "I am confident that we can rise to this challenge, if we commit to build on what we have begun here".

She told the gathering that there is a "lingering evidence" of the dehumanising slave trade that decimated the socio-cultural and socio-economic fabric of the entire African society and he noted that this legacy has continued to be felt up to the present day in Africa. "The diaspora had robbed us of not only our valuable human resource, but also significantly stifled our socioeconomic development".

The Gambian-born AU political commissioner described the four-day meeting as fruitful, adding that the debates and discussions during each session have "incrementally added to our collective awareness of various issues and the myriad of initiatives that are occurring in different parts of the continent and in the diaspora". This, she said, "Will hopefully lead to greater collaboration and coordination and the formulation of consensus platforms on key issues".

She further expressed hope that each participant has left the meeting with a renewed determination to actively  and continuously contribute to the eradication of discrimination and intolerance.