The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located across the continent of Africa. The AU was officially launched in Durban, South Africa on July 9, 2002, succeeding the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU aims to advance economic and political integration, safeguard peace and security, foster sustainable development, and promote democracy, human rights, and good governance in Africa. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.
The historical foundations of the African Union originated in the First Congress of Independent African States, held in Accra, Ghana from 15 to 22 April 1958. The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi; the heads of state and governments of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration (named after Sirte, Libya) on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted.
The AU is an institutional embodiment of the postcolonial vision of Pan-Africanism. Many of Africa’s political and intellectual leaders embraced the concept first envisioned early in the twentieth century by leading African American activists and intellectuals, such as W. E. B. Du Bois.
The organization is also founded upon the international relations concept of regional integration, which refers to the unification of individual nation states in a geographical region into a larger unit or whole. The process of regional integration is complex and dynamic. It requires the willingness of the individual member states to share and\or unify resources, policy making, and policy implementation. In essence, it requires each member to relinquish some measure of their sovereignty. The level of integration is determined by the degree to which member states agree to share resources and responsibilities. The goals of the African Union are collective economic prosperity, improved levels of national security, the preservation of cultural identity, and continental cohesion.
For member states, the formation of the AU was a decisive moment in the postcolonial history of the continent of Africa and a major progression in the mission of its predecessor. The main mission of the OAU was to rid the continent of the remaining residues of colonization, including South African apartheid; the promotion of African solidarity and unity; cooperative economics; and the protection of state sovereignty and security. The mission of the AU is the structural integration of key areas of governance and policy making on the continent.
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The OAU cleared the path for the emergence of the AU. Several OAU missions laid the necessary foundations upon which the AU was founded. These included the Lagos Plan of Action, which implemented strategies of self-reliant development; the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights and Grand Bay Declaration and Plan of Action on Human Rights, which promoted human rights protections on the continent; Declaration of Political and Socio-Economic Situations, which established the principles of peace, democratic development, and security; the African Economic Community Treaty; and the Unconstitutional Changes of Government and Lome Declaration, which established a plan of action for responses to non-democratic regime changes on the continent. The OAU put mechanisms in place to coordinate efforts to address pandemics, international terrorism, refugee and displaced persons crises, and the small and light weapons trade.
In September 1999, the heads of state and governments of the member states of the OAU membership issued the Sirte Declaration, which called for the establishment of the African Union with the mission of accelerating the process of continental integration. The main objective was to position the continent to play a greater role in the global economy and to consolidate the resources of the member states to address the social, economic, and political consequences of globalization.
The new organization was launched under the leadership of Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi , through four significant Summit agreements: Sirte Extraordinary Session (1999), Lome Summit (2000), Lusaka Summit (2001), and Durban Summit (2002). Durban launched the AU with the convening of its first assembly. Fifty-three African nations became member states, the sole exception being Morocco.
The legal and institutional framework of the African Union is designed to confront the many Herculean challenges posed by globalization and the end of the Cold War. The organization defines its mission as one to create "An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena." The organizational structure includes an assembly and executive council, as well as the Permanent Representatives’ Committee; Peace and Security Council; Pan-African Parliament; Economic, Social and Cultural Council; African Court of Justice, Members Commission; Portfolios Commission; and a variety of technical committees. African Union financial institutions include the African Central Bank, African Monetary Fund, and African Investment Bank. The key organ of day-to-day management, AU Commission, is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
One major area of priority for the AU is the economic unification of Africa’s struggling economies. There are eight regional economic communities recognized by the AU, but each has its separate regional treaties. The AU adopted a protocol for relations for each of the regional economic communities, but the long term strategy is to fully integrate the entire continent, using as its model the European Union.
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The AU maintains consistent progress toward its goals of democratic and economic development and continental peace and security. Its major security challenges include global terrorism, regional civil wars, refugee crises, and regime corruption. The AU has been successful thus far in fostering international partnerships with rising powers in the international system, most notably China. The strategies that the AU adopts to manage the competing interests of China and the traditional western powers is of major concern for international relations and a diplomatic challenge for the AU.
The AU represents the interests of African peoples at large in intergovernmental organisations (IGOs); for instance, it is a permanent observer at the United Nations General Assembly. Both the African Union and the United Nations work in tandem to address issues of common concerns in various areas.
One of the objectives of the AU is to "promote peace, security, and stability on the continent". Among its principles is "Peaceful resolution of conflicts among Member States of the Union through...
Key Objectives and Principles
Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitutive Act of the AU enumerate the objectives and principles of the regional organization. The objectives and principles can be summarized into the following six interrelated areas:
- The AU is planned to be a forum for the promotion of regional integration and African unity through socio-economic integration, continental research on all fields including science and technology and the development of common positions on issues of common interest.
- The AU also establishes institutions that nurture solidarity among African peoples, coordinate its actions with sub-regional economic communities and forges a common front in international negotiations and cooperation.
- The protection of human rights is provided as one major objective for the establishment of the AU.
- The AU member States set the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as one objective of the organization.
- Moreover, the promotion of ‘democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance’ is provided as an objective of the organization within the promotion and protection of the rights of African people.
- The AU Constitutive Act rules out unilateral intervention between member States.
AU member States have also agreed on the right to ‘request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security’. This is a case of intervention by invitation. The request for intervention from a member State is made to the Assembly of the AU, which is the highest decision-making organ. AU member States have acknowledged the relation between democracy, rule of law and economic development.
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Map of African Union Member States
Structure of the African Union
The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by João Lourenço, President of Angola. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan-African Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national legislatures of the AU member states. Its president is Fortune Z.
Article 5 of the AU Constitutive Act provides for the establishment of the following institutions of the Union: the Assembly, the Executive Council, the Specialized Technical Committees, the Pan-African Parliament, the Court of Justice, the Financial Institutions, the Commission, the Permanent Representatives Committee, and the Economic, Social and Cultural Council. Another key institution, which was not directly established by the Constitutive Act, is the AU Peace and Security Council.
Key Institutions
- The Assembly: Composed of heads of state and heads of government of AU states, the Assembly is currently the supreme governing body of the African Union. It is gradually devolving some of its decision-making powers to the Pan-African Parliament. It meets once a year and makes its decisions by consensus or by a two-thirds majority.
- The Executive Council: Composed of ministers designated by the governments of member states. It decides on matters such as foreign trade, social security, food, agriculture and communications, is accountable to the Assembly, and prepares material for the Assembly to discuss and approve.
- The Pan-African Parliament: To become the highest legislative body of the African Union. The seat of the PAP is at Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Parliament is composed of 265 elected representatives from all 55 AU states, and intended to provide popular and civil-society participation in the processes of democratic governance.
- The Court of Justice: The Constitutive Act provides for a Court of Justice to rule on disputes over interpretation of AU treaties. A protocol to set up this Court of Justice was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2009. The formal sources of law of the Court are the AU Constitutive Act, international treaties expressly recognized by contesting states, international custom, and general principles of law; while judicial decisions, the writings of publicists, the AU regulations, directives and decisions are subsidiary means for the determination of the rule of law.
- The Commission: The secretariat of the African Union, composed of ten commissioners and supporting staff and headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AU Commission is composed of the Chairperson, the deputy Chairperson and eight Commissioners all of whom are appointed by the Assembly based on gender balance and equitable representation of all sub-regions.
- Peace and Security Council (PSC): Proposed at the Lusaka Summit in 2001 and established in 2004 under a protocol to the Constitutive Act adopted by the AU Assembly in July 2002. The protocol defines the PSC as a collective security and early-warning arrangement to facilitate timely and effective response to conflict and crisis situations in Africa. Other responsibilities conferred to the PSC by the protocol include prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, post-conflict peace building and developing common defence policies. The PSC has fifteen members elected on a regional basis by the Assembly.
- The Panel of the Wise: An advisory organ composed of professional and civic representatives, similar to the European Economic and Social Committee. The Panel of the Wise is an advisory body composed of five highly respected African personalities who have made outstanding contribution to the cause of peace and security on the Continent. Members of the Panel are appointed by the Assembly for a term of three years.
- Specialised Technical Committees: Both the Abuja Treaty and the Constitutive Act provide for Specialised Technical Committees to be established made up of African ministers to advise the Assembly. In practice, they have never been set up.
- Military Staff Committee (MSC): The Military Staff Committee (MSC) is a standing advisory body to the Peace and Security Council on military and related security matters. The MSC is composed of Senior Military Officers of members of the Peace and Security Council.
The AU Assembly is the supreme decision-making organ of the Union. It is composed of the Heads of State and Government of all member States of the African Union or their accredited representatives. The Assembly meets at least once in a year in an ordinary session and convenes for an extra ordinary meeting at the request of a member State and at the approval of two-third majority of member States. The Executive Council is another decision-making organ composed of the ministers of foreign affairs or equivalent authorities designated by the governments of the member States of the AU. The Executive Council is directly accountable to the Assembly.
The AU Constitutive Act does not establish the Peace and Security Council as one the organs of the AU. In the initial process of establishing the AU, the Central Organ of the 1993 OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution was incorporated and retained as a peace and security organ of the AU based on Article 5(2) of the Constitutive Act.
The African Standby Force (ASF)
The African Standby Force (ASF) will provide the central pillar of the architecture in future. A framework concept was agreed in 2004. The Department for Peace and Security of the AU Commission combines the functions of executive and secretariat. A Pan-African Early Warning Unit is also attached to the Department to steer ongoing AU peacekeeping operations.
A key enforcement and supporting institution under the Peace and Security Council is the African Standby Force. The Peace and Security Protocol provides for the establishment of the African Standby Force composed of civilian and military personnel for the purpose of implementing the peacekeeping and intervention mandate of the AU.
African Peace and Security Architecture
Peacekeeping Missions and Interventions
The AU began with a peacekeeping force in Burundi (AMIB) back in 2003, followed by the AMIS mission in Darfur (now UNAMID), AMISOM in Somalia and MISCA in the Central African Republic. These missions are not yet based on the idea of a standby force, but depend on voluntary undertakings by the troop-contributing nations.
With it came the understanding that the Africans and their regional organisations should take increased responsibility for peace and security on the continent. The AU is duty bound to intervene in severe cases of human rights abuse or when there is a threat of genocide. It is also committed to the principle of ostracising regimes that have assumed power in violation of a country’s constitution and imposing sanctions on them.
The AU's first military intervention in a member state was the May 2003 deployment of a peacekeeping force of soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to oversee the implementation of the various agreements in Burundi. AU troops were also deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping during the Darfur Conflict, before the mission was handed over to the United Nations on 1 January 2008 via UNAMID.
The AU has adopted a number of important new documents establishing norms at the continental level, to supplement those already in force when it was created.
Partnerships and International Relations
Membership of the AU overlaps with other IGOs, and occasionally, these third-party organisations and the AU will coordinate on matters of public policy. Many Caribbean nations have sought to deepen ties with the continent of Africa.
For the European Commission, the European Union's relationship with Africa is a key priority. In regards to strengthening resilience, peace, security and governance, the African Union and the European Union recognize that resilience, peace, security and governance are all closely linked.
Turkey-Africa relations have gained substantial momentum since the declaration of Turkey as a strategic partner of the continent by the African Union in January 2008. Since 2008, various major summits and meetings have been taking place between Turkey and AU. As of 2020, Turkey has embassies in 42 countries and commercial counselors in 26 countries on the Africa continent.
One of the leading economic partners of the continent has been the People's Republic of China (PRC). The new headquarters complex, the AU Conference Center and Office Complex (AUCC), was inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The complex was built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation as a gift from the Chinese government, and accommodates, among other facilities, a 2,500-seat plenary hall and a 20-story office tower.
Challenges and Ongoing Issues
Since its inception, the effectiveness of the institution has been tested by a series of security, political, and medical crises on the continent. Opinions vary as to how well or whether the organization has succeeded in meeting these challenges. The AU has, however, remained actively engaged in African affairs.
The AU has been successful thus far in fostering international partnerships with rising powers in the international system, most notably China. The strategies that the AU adopts to manage the competing interests of China and the traditional western powers is of major concern for international relations and a diplomatic challenge for the AU.
