1000 Agreements … and Counting [Archives:1998/44/Viewpoint]

Last week, the Government of Yemen signed 12 agreements and half a dozen protocols with the Jordanian Government. A few weeks earlier, the Yemeni Government had signed 39 agreements and protocols with the Egyptian Government. A similar number of agreements was also signed with Syria. A few months earlier – during the Presidential visits to Malaysia, China and Indonesia, Yemeni authorities signed 31 agreements and protocols with the governments of those countries.
The root cause for the plethora of Yemeni agreements with other countries is the wrong perception that official visits by senior Yemeni officials should be climaxed with the signing of documents. The official media often boasts that the visits were successful because so many agreements were signed. Nobody cares what happens to those agreements.
The approach is simple. In most cases, junior bureaucrats who are part of the delegation, carry samples of various agreements signed with other partners. These are used to draft new agreements. Sometimes, the whole thing can be rather amusing. I remember going up to one minister during the President’s Far Eastern voyage, and asking him after signing seven agreements, to name the agreements. Just the names.
He could not.
Today, observers estimate that Yemeni authorities have signed – over the last ten years alone, some 1,000 agreements and treaties, though nobody really knows the exact number. As one Foreign Ministry official candidly notes, “We really don’t know how many agreements we have signed.”There should be a central department that at least keeps tap on the documents we commit ourselves to. Unfortunately, there isn’t. There should be copies of the agreements. Unfortunately, there isn’t. In some cases, the very documents are lost.
I remember one frightening case. I was first-hand witness to a minister writing a letter to an oil company asking it to please give it a copy of the concession agreement according to which the company was working in Yemen. Now that is frightening.
Most ministries and authorities would have a collection of the documents they have signed. Of course, the efficiency with which the agreements are followed necessarily varies from one agency to another. That is why an umbrella watch-dog would be a good idea.
Implementation is the key point of any agreement.
We have another need. The Yemeni Government, in its attempts to fall in line with the world community, regularly signs various international conventions. We have so far signed many of them. While it is important to accede to these treaties and conventions, it is equally important to make sure that we live up to our commitments. Sometimes, failure to comply is merely a question of being aware of what our commitments were, rather than refusal to live to them.
So, what is the point of all of this?
Well, I already mentioned a solution would be to set up a center or department to provide registry and follow-up services. This center or department would alert various ministries and other authorities of their responsibilities as stipulated in the agreements.
Is this too much to ask for?
Prof. Dr. Abdulaziz AL-SAQQAF
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

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